Effect of Aqueous Extract of Different Plant Parts of the Phytolacca Americana L. on the Life Span of Honeybee Workers and its Ability to Stimulate the Production of Antimicrobial Peptides

Abstract

This study aimed to survey and identify the common weeds distributed in agricultural fields in the Benghazi Plain region and to assess the weed density in order to develop a database about the distributed species and help specialists develop an appropriate weed control program for the region. In this study, 116 weed species were collected, belonging to 97 genera represented in 40 plant families. All of these species belong to the angiosperms, including 99 species of dicotyledons distributed into 34 families. There were 17 species of monocotyledons distributed into six families. According to the number of species for each genus, the genus Euphorbia contained six plant species. The most represented plant family was the Asteraceae, which contained 18 plant species, followed by the Poaceae family, with 10 plant species. The results obtained also showed a diversity in the forms of plant species in the study area were included 11 species (9.48%) of Phanerophytes, 23 species (19.82%) of Chamaephytes, 13 species (11.21%) of Cryptophytes, and 8 species (6.90%) of Hemicryptophytes, whereas the annual plants (Therophytes) were the most common with 61 species (52.59%). As for weed density, results showed that the species Avena fatua had the highest density in the study area.

Keywords:

Weeds, Benghazi plain, agricultural fields, Libya.