Journal of Research in Weed Science

Abstract Weeds could replace the cultivated fodders in case of fodder shortage. But most of farmers are not aware about the potential of traditional weeds in croplands. Thus, an experiment was conducted to estimate the nutritional quality of some forage weeds with respect to their phonological development. Quantitative and qualitative parameters were recorded and analyzed statistically by analysis of variance technique and means of treatments were compared by least significant difference test. Qualitative traits of selected weeds were determined through the methods developed by The Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC). The results showed that the quantitative traits of weeds differ from each other. It was found that the moisture decreased from vegetative (86.13-90.92%) to post reproductive stage (86.77-73.56%) and crude protein decreased from vegetative (16.95-23.40%) to post reproductive stage (11.52-15.09%) in all weeds. Similarly ash contents decreased from vegetative (13.72-23.40%) to post reproductive stage (9.26-13.11%) in all weeds. The crude fats were nearly similar in all stages (1.75-2.00%). Dry matter and crude fiber increased (9.08-13.87 to 13.23-26.44% and 9.86-21.95 to 21.58-31.63%, respectively) from vegetative to post reproductive stage. Overall results declared that the biomass produced by weeds was a luxurious source for livestock production during the vegetative stage of growth as the nutritional quality decreased from vegetative to post reproductive stages. Further research is needed to explore the forage quality of all common weeds present in croplands.

Abstract The weeds are well accepted source of herbal medicines. However, these plants should be managed and removed from agro ecosystems due to their negative impacts on agricultural production systems. However, it is matter of interest that some of well-known weeds are source of drugs and traditional medicine. The weeds have certain biological phytochemicals viz. alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, terpenes, and saponins etc. which are used to treat health disorders. The demand and importance of natural occurring herbal drugs is rising globally. This is due to their social contentment, easy accessibility, cheapness, effectiveness and no side effect claims. The use of herbs and weeds is based on empirical treatment and experiences from many generations with info accessible solely in native magazines. These medicines possess numerous biologically active ingredients associated with health disorders. Thus their potential has not been fully explored. There is need to improve the quality and analysis of herbal products to be fabricated with research advancements in their efficacy. This review identifies bioactive or phytochemicals present in different plant parts of weeds and ways to extract them are discussed. In addition, the medicinal beneficial aspects of weed species, their medicinal utility and major concerning issues are also highlighted.

Abstract Most of the people think that weeds are not useful, so they should be eradicated in any case. However weeds have numerous secondary metabolites of medical utility. These secondary metabolites serve as a treatment for many psychological, physical and pharmacological disorders of human body. The essential oils (EOs) extracted from weeds could be utilized as aromatherapy to cure several ailments. This review highlights the role of EOs in aromatherapy, health benefits of aromatherapy by essence or EOs of weeds, methods to extract aroma or EOs, their mode of action, quality and storage issues of EOs, scope and future trends in aromatherapy.