Bioherbicidal Activity of Endophytic Aspergillus niger Crude Extract Against Major Weeds of Rice Crops for Sustainable Agriculture
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33003/fjs-2026-1013-5683Keywords:
Endophytic Fungus, Extract, Bioherbicidal Activity, GC-MS, WeedsAbstract
Rice (Oryza sativa) is one of the most stable foods in Nigeria, but efficient production is limited by weeds attack. This study assessed the bioherbicidal activity of endophytic Aspergillus niger extract against Echinochiola crus-galli, Cyperus iria, and I. rugosum weeds. A fungus was isolated from healthy Vitellaria paradoxa leaves and molecularly identified as Aspergillus niger (MIK1) strain with accession number AM270408.1 recorded in the NCBI GenBank. PDA Pure mycelial culture of the fungus was grown in 250mLErlenmeyer flasks containing 100mL PDB medium on a shaker at 120 rpm and 28°C for 12days.The broth culture was extracted using ethyl acetate and yielded 4.57g of crude extract. GC–MS analysis detected 26 compounds in the extract. Bioherbicidal activity at varying concentration of 0.125, 0.25, 0.5 1.0μg/mL indicated that the extract inhibited seed germination of E. crus-galli (17.4 %), shoot length (6.3%), and radicle length (9.4 %) at the highest concentration(1.0 μg/mL). Screen house test showed a reduction of shoot fresh and dry weights of both weeds with over 80 % at 1.0 μg/mL. ANOVA test showed that germinations, seedling growths, and biomass reduction of both weeds were not significantly different (p˃ 0.05). These findings reveal that endophytic Aspergillus niger crude extract from Nigeria V.paradoxa possessed bioactive compounds with bioherbicidal activity against the test weeds. Further investigations for practical applications in the field to manage other weeds is suggested for sustainable agriculture.
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