Effect of Camphor and Basil Oils on Productivity of Maize, Sunflower, Sorghum and Associated Weeds

Abstract

The present study was aimed to evaluate the efficacy of basil and camphor oils in suppressing weeds. and productivity of three crops: sorghum, sunflower and maize. All experiments were carried out during the period from 2020 to 2023 in the experimental farm and screen house of the Weed Research Central Laboratory, Giza Research Station, Agricultural Research Center (ARC), Egypt. Results obtained indicated that the camphor and basil oils significantly reduced fresh weights of weed species across all experiments, and improved the crops’ growth and yield parameters, without showing phytotoxic effects. Fresh-weight reductions of 40–95% were recorded for sensitive weed species in soils with a low weed-seed bank, with lower effect under high soil seed bank of Ipomoea eriocarpa, Setaria viridis and Trianthema portulacastrum. The increased efficiency of camphor and basil oils to 98-100% in sorghum experiments may be due to the allelopathic effect of sorghum on weeds, which complements the effect of the oils. It can be concluded that the use of camphor and basil oils for weed control under low weed infestation, and supplemented by crop allelopathic effect and hand hoeing in the field with high weed infestation, can be recommended.

Keywords:

Weed control, camphor oil, basil oil.