




































Highlights in BioScience
ISSN:2682-4043
DOI:10.36462/H.BioSci.202103

Research Article

Open Access

1 Natubhai V. Patel College of Pure and Applied

Sciences , Sardar Patel University, Vallabh

Vidyanagar, Anand, India.

Contacts of authors

* To whom correspondence should be
addressed: Yachana Jha

Received: August 23, 2020

Accepted: January 15, 2021

Published: January 25, 2021

Citation: Jha Y . Macrophytes as a potential
tool for crop production by providing nutrient
as well as protection against common phyto
pathogen. 2021 Jan 25;4:bs202103

Copyright: © 2021 Jha. This is an open access
article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction
in any medium, provided the original author and
source are credited.

Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are
within the paper and supplementary materials.

Funding: The authors have no support or
funding to report.

Competing interests: The authors declare
that they have no competing interests.

Macrophytes as a potential tool for crop production by providing nu-
trient as well as protection against common phyto pathogen

Yachana Jha*1

Abstract
Applications of synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides lead to several environ-

mental hazards, causing damages to entire ecosystem. To reduce damage caused by such
chemical inputs in agriculture and environment required a serious attention for replacement
of chemicals input with eco-friendly options. In this study decaying macrophytes were
selected as an option for organic agriculture, by analyzing its ability to provide important
mineral nutrient to the maize crop grown in low nutrient soil as well as for providing
resistant towards many common phyto-pathogens to enhance yield. The results of the study
showed that decaying macrophytes have high concentration of stored important mineral
nutrient in their body mass, which get released in the soil during its decay and to be used
by the maize plant. The decaying macrophytes leaf extract have considerable amount
of phenolic and flavonoids also having antimicrobial activity. The antimicrobial activity
of the leaf extract has been analyzed against the common phyto-pathogen Pseudomonas
aeruginosa , and S. aureus by agar disc method and the formation of clear zone indicate its
potential as bio-control agent. So under intensive agricultural practices, application of such
biological waste is of particular importance for enhancing soil fertility without chemical
input, to ensure sustainable agriculture.

Keywords: Macrophytes, Phytochemicals, Phenolic, Flavonoids, Antimicrobial activity, Mineral

nutrient.

Introduction
Aquatic plants are adapted to live in aquatic environments and are referred to as hydrophytes

or macrophytes. These plants require special adaptations for living and can only grow in water

or soil that is perfectly saturated with water. Aquatic plants generate one of the most productive

ecosystems of the world and are essential life supporting systems, which provide a wide array of

benefits to the aquatic life and human kind. However, these ecosystems are today’s fast declining and

rapidly deteriorating ecosystems in many parts of the world. Ignoring the economic and ecological

significance of aquatic plants is often regarded menace [1]. Due to continuous pollution of water

bodies and urbanization resulted in eutrophication, which disturbed the aquatic ecosystem. So to

maintain the aquatic ecosystem, cleaning of water bodies and dumping of macrophytes is a global

problem.

Global climate change causes a series of extremities like frost, salinity or drought, which adversely

affect the plant nutrient dynamics as well as world food requirement. The availability of nutrients

in the soil and its acquisition, assimilation, distribution within the plants or in the crop fields are

directly disturbed by climatic stress factors [2]. Low soil nutrient has deleterious effect on nutrient

dynamics within the plant root as well as in shoot, including transportation of nutrient to reproductive

structures via xylem and phloem, or mobilization of nutrient from senescing leaves. Water fluxes,

assimilatory activities, and the redistribution of inorganic nutrients are also affected by environmental

stress. Macrophytes have the ability to accumulate large amount of water and nutrient in their leaves,

can serve as a good option for the plant nutrient under stress/low soil nutrient condition. Macrophyte

decomposition is important for carbon and nutrient cycling in lake ecosystems or in the low nutrient

soil [3].

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Jha, 2021 Macrophytes as a potential tool for crop production

It act as a important source of essential nutrient like phospho-
rus, carbon, potassium, zinc and nitrogen in the form of ammonia
etc., due to the ability of macrophyte plant to absorbs and accu-
mulate these nutrients from soils or water in their body, which
ultimately disposes during its decomposition in the ecosystem.

Such nutrient rich macrophytes plants can be used efficiently
in organic agriculture/bio-composting that can be applied to ob-
tain required mineral nutrient effectively and successfully for
the proper growth of plant, results in increased plant growth and
yield. As bio-composting is an economically and ecologically im-
portant necessity in resent agriculture, which in return increases
the soil quality and crop yield. Biological agents are nowadays
drawing attention because of its increased organic efficiency in
terms of physical and chemical characteristics of the soil [4].

In nature, plants species grow together and interact with each
other by inhibiting or stimulating the growth and development
through various interactions. A special form of competition
among plants is known as allelopathy, also shown by aquatic
plants. Such interaction is a biological phenomenon in which
an organism produces many bio-chemical compounds that in-
fluence the growth, and reproduction of other organisms. Such
interactions are primarily based on the synthesis and release of
secondary metabolites, known as allelochemicals or allelotoxins
[5]. Such allelochemicals initiate a wide array of biochemical
reactions and induce several biological changes, which inhibit
the growth of target pathogenic organism, which is not possible
solely by physical or chemical agents. The macrophytes also
have ability to overcome stress arise due to multiple symbiotic or
pathogenic interaction. The aim of the work is analyze the effect
of decaying macrophytes on the plant nutrient status, growth and
its ability for the production of antibiotics and related secondary
metabolites, to protect host maize plant against the potential
phyto-pathogens.

Materials and Methods
Aquatic plants collection and preparation of samples

Macrophyte plants were collected from nearby lake and ponds
from Anand-Tarapur district of Gujarat. It was immediately
packed in polyethylene bags to prevent the degradation of bioac-
tive compounds of the collected plant samples and was brought
to the laboratory for further study. The healthy and disease free
plants were used for further study. The collected leaf samples
were thoroughly washed with water to eradicate surface dust and
foreign materials and used for sample preparation. The washed
leaves were properly dried at room temperature for 7 days under
shade and were ground into a powder with the help of grinder.

Estimation of mineral nutrient concentrations of soil, hydrophytes
and maize leaves

The physio-chemical property of the soil, hydrophytes and
maize leaves were analyzed by saturated water extraction method
in SICART lab. The leaves powder sample were digested for
6 hours in nitric-perchloric acid (5:3) and used to estimate the

concentration of phosphorus by colorimetric. Similarly the con-
centration of nitrogen was estimated after the Kjeldahl digestion
by colorimetry and 2g of plant material were digested in mixture
of sulphuric acid, nitric acid and perchloric acid (tri-acid) in the
ratio of 9:3:1 and were used to determine the concentration of N,
P, K, Zn and Ca. The aliquots of digested filtered plant material
were analyzed on digital flame photometry by using specific filter.

Preparation of leaf extract
The leaf extract was prepared by soaking 10g of leaves mate-

rial powder in 50 ml of distilled water for 24 hours under shaking
condition at 130-140 rpm at room temperature. After that the ex-
tract was filtered from eight layers of muslin cloth and filtrate was
collected in petri-dish. The obtained filtered extracts were dried
at room temperature in petri-dish, and was scraped, transferred to
tubes for further use. Similarly, plant material was re-extracted
with 50 ml of ethyl acetate, and methanol also. Finally obtained
extracts were dried under reduced pressure and were stored in a
refrigerator at 4 °C until use.

Qualitative analysis of phyto-chemical screening
The phyto-chemical tests to detect the presence of alka-

loid, saponins, quinones, steroids, phenols, flavonoide, tannins,
coumarines and reducteurs compound were performed. The vi-
sual observations like formation of a precipitate or change in color
after the addition of specific reagents were used to determine the
presence of specific phyto-chemical in the plant extract.

Quantitative analysis on phytochemicals constituents
Total phenolic content

The total phenolic content of leaf extracts was measured
using colorimetric Folin–Ciocalteu method [6]. The leaf extract
(1ml) was mixed with 5ml of distilled water and 250 μl of 1N
folin-ciocalteau reagent. The mixture was covered and allowed
it to stand for 3min at 25°C. In this mixture, 1ml of saturated
Na2CO3 and 1ml of distilled water were added. The mixture was
incubated for 1 hour at 25°C for color development and measured
at 725 nm using spectrophotometer. Standard graph was prepared
by using different concentration of phenol crystals.

Total flavonoid content
The colorimetric assay was used to estimate total flavonoid

content in presence of aluminum chloride [7]. In 10 ml volumet-
ric flask 1ml of leaf extract, 4 ml of distilled water and 0.3 ml
of 5% NaNO2 was added. After proper mixing for 5 minutes
0.3 ml of 10% AlCl3 and 2 ml of 1 M NaOH was added in it.
Finally 3.7 ml of distilled water was added to made up total 10
ml volume. The obtained mixed solution was used estimate total
flavonoid content by taking absorbance at 510 nm against blank
and calculated by the help of standard graph of gallic acid.

Phyto-pathogenic microorganism
Two most common plant pathogenic microorganisms Pseu-

domonas aeruginosa and S. aureus has been selected to analyze

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Jha, 2021 Macrophytes as a potential tool for crop production

the antibacterial potential of the leaf extract. These isolates were
obtained from a biotechnology research lab of biosciences de-
partment SP University.

Antimicrobial activity assay
The Agar disc diffusion method was used for this analysis.

The culture suspension was spread all over plate by placing 0.1ml
of culture at center of nutrient agar plate and spreading uniformly
with sterile spreader. Then, 6 mm in diameter filter paper discs
containing the different types (water, ethyl acetate, and methanol)
of leaf extract at a concentration of 100µl were used with distill
water as control. And 4 filter paper discs were placed on the
nutrient agar medium surface for the diffusion of leaf extract in
the nutrient agar. The Petri discs were then incubated in incubator
at 37 °C for 24 h, plates were observed for zone of inhibition by
measuring the colony diameter. A 100 % DMSO was used as
control.

Effect of decaying macrophytes on minerals concentration under
low soil nutrient condition in maize leaves

For this analysis, the maize seedlings were planted in the field
with low soil nutrient supplemented with decaying macrophytes
without chemical fertilizer for 5 weeks. After 5 weeks plant
sample were used determined the foliar phosphorus and nitrogen
content by colorimeter, after digesting the plant sample with
nitric-perchloric acid (5:3) for 6h Kjeldahl digestion respectively.
The foliar potassium, calcium and zinc content were estimated
by digesting 1 g of plant sample with tri-acid mixture, which
contain mixture of sulphuric acid, nitric acid and perchloric acid
in the ratio of 9:3:1. The filtrates of digested material were used
for the further analysis by using specific filter on digital flame
photometry.

Effect of decaying macrophytes on plant growth parameters
Macrophytes were collected from the polluted water bodies

and dumped at a site to initiate its decaying process. After 3
days of collection 10 cm thick bed was prepared on the crop
field and was masked by 5 cm soil layer in a low soil nutrient
field. After 10 days maize seed were sown in this field to analyze
the effect of decaying macrophytes on plant growth parameters.
Then seedlings were collected carefully with root after 35 days of
sowing to measure the shoot and root length and dry weight. The
plants were dried in an oven at 80°C for 72 hrs for dry weight.

Statistical Analysis
All experiments described were performed three times in-

dependently, with measurements taken from three (for all other
measurements) or ten (for dry weight measurements) different
plants for each treatment in each of the three independent exper-
iments. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was used
to analyze all data and mean (of three independent experiments)
was compared at 5 % level of significance.

Results and Discussion
Soil hardly ever supports crop production at their full poten-

tial yield due to lack of sufficient nutrient. So use of chemical
fertilizers is a regular mechanism to achieve the yield potential.
But low use of chemical fertilizers may be results in reduced
yield and excessive application pollute the environment including
water bodies, if applied without prior information about the nutri-
ent content of the soil. At the same time pollution of water bodies
resulted in overgrowth of macrophytes having harmful affect on
water life, so such macrophytes are problem for water bodies.
Therefore use of such macrophytes as a source of nutrient in low
nutrient soil status is the best option to overcome the problem,
as it accumulates extra nutrient and water in their bodies. So in
the present study, the macrophytes have been used as a source of
supplement nutrient in the low nutrient soil in place of chemical
fertilizer. So the initial major mineral nutrients (N, P, K, Zn
and Ca) has been analyzed in the soil used for maize cultivation,
control maize leaves and decaying macrophytes leaves and result
of the study, showed significant variation in the initial mineral
nutrient concentration in these three. Mineral nutrient concentra-
tion was considerably high in decaying macrophyte as shown in
Table 1, in compare to control maize leaves as well as soil under
consideration. The decomposition of macrophytes release higher
concentration of phosphorus and nitrogen and its assimilation
was also higher in plants as reported by Lu et al. [8].

The synthesis of the phenolic acids, flavonoids, quinones,
flavonols, phenols, coumarins and tannins like aromatic sec-
ondary metabolites in plant takes place to acquire resistant against
the adverse environmental stress [9]. And in the present study,
such compounds present in significantly higher amount in macro-
phytes leaves. Phytochemical constituents of the macrophytes
showed presence of different phytochemical constituents as alka-
loid, saponins, cardiac glycosides, steroids, phenols and flavon
-oides (Table 2), but there was considerable variation in its con-
stituents in fresh and decaying macrophytes. Phenolics hav-
ing broad spectrum biochemical activity like antimicrobial, anti-
tumors, antioxidant and also has the ability to alter the expression
of related gene in plant under stress. The majority of the antioxi-
dant activities in plants have been carried out by phenolics, which
is a largest group of phytochemical [10].

Flavonoids are type of phenolic compounds naturally pro-
duced in the plant either in free or as glycosides have numerous
biological functions like protein kinase inhibition, antioxidants,
antimicrobial and mitochondrial adhesion inhibition etc.With
the development of resistant towards the pesticides, there is re-
quirement for ecologically sustainable natural alternatives or
plants derivates as a choice to enhanced crop production. Plant
induced phyto-chemicals as well as plant extracts have antimi-
crobial properties against different phytopathogen including bac-
teria. Plants interact with its changing surrounding environment
efficiently due to production of secondary metabolites, which
helps in acquiring tolerance towards harsh environment for sus-
tainable adaptation. Biotic stress in plants resulted in retarded

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Jha, 2021 Macrophytes as a potential tool for crop production

Table 1. Concentration of minerals nutrient concentration in soil, hydrophytes and maize leaves (n=5).

S.No Sample N (mgkg-1) P (mgkg-1) K (mgkg-1) Zn (mgkg-1) Ca (mg kg-1)

1 Soil 19.5±0.12 952.1±1.12 26246±0.11 285.4±1.27 11782±0.16

2 Decaying Hydrophytes 32.6±1.3 1372.4±2.11 58362±0.23 429.2±1.32 14467±1.37

3 Maize leaves 27.9±1.21 1068.2±0.16 31583±0.21 363.3±2.01 12947±0.13

Values are mean of three replications (p≤0.05; LSD test). .

Table 2. Qualitative analysis of phytochemicals in fresh (A) and decaying (B)
macrophytes.

Phytochemicals A B

Alkaloid + +

Saponins + +

Quinones - -

Steroids - +

Phenols + +

Flavonoides + +

Tannins - +

Coumarines + +

Reducteurs + -

+: Present and - : Absent.

plant growth with enhanced secondary metabolites production
as phenolic compounds to defend biotic stress [11]. Phenolic
and flavonoids metabolites of plants are organic compounds hav-
ing aromatic rings with one or many hydroxyl groups. In this
study, the phytochemicals constitutes as total phenolic and total
flavonoid contents were quantitatively analyzed in the macro-
phyte and result showed that, the total phenolics content was
higher in decaying macrophyte, while total flavonoids content
was higher in fresh macrophyte (Table 3), and play major role
in attaining maximum yield potential by providing nitrogenous
product in normal state as well as in low soil nutrient. Also pres-
ence of significant amount of phenolic and flavonoids provide
protection against wide range of phytopathogen.

Table 3. Quantitative analysis of phytochemicals in in fresh (A) and decaying
(B) macrophytes.

Phytochemicals A B

Total Phenolic content (mg/g of extract) 3.34±0.01 4.76±0.12

Total Flavonoid content (mg/g of extract) 6.83±0.02 5.37±0.02

For each Parameter, values are mean of three replications (p≤ 0.05; LSD test).

The use of synthetic pesticides is a quick and effective tool
to manage plant diseases. But nonstop and arbitrary use of such
synthetic pesticides in the crop field has several deleterious ef-
fects on human health and ecosystem, due to its incorporation
in food chain and residual toxicity. Use of synthetic pesticides
attributes to long degradation periods, elevated acute toxicity,
and gathering in the food chain. So the use of biological agents
is an economically viable and safe option, to reduce the use of
chemicals application. In the present study, the antibacterial ac-

tivity of the decaying macrophytes showed significant effect on
the both Pseudomonas aeruginosa and S. aureus potential phyto-
pathogenic bacteria observed during agar disc diffusion method,
by formation of clear zone around the disc having different leave
extract (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Effect of macrophytes plant extract (water, ethyl acetate, and
methanol extract) with distill water as control on the bacterial pathogen on
Nutrient Agar plate as Zone of Inhibition (ZOI). Where A for Pseudomonas
aeruginosa and B for S. aureus.

Plant growth is a complex process and the plant production
depends on availability of sunlight, chemical energy, carbon
source, mineral nutrients and water from the soil. Many mineral
nutrients in proper proportion are necessary for plant growth
to attain its full strength yield. The plant having limited above
ground resources like sunlight, and carbon source, then plant
enhance the biomass allocation to the shoots and when there is
limited below ground resources like mineral nutrients and water,
then plant enhance the biomass allocation to the roots resulted in
shunted growth according to functional balance theory[12].

So for proper plant growth the main nutrients required are
potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen. These primary nutrients are
accountable for limiting crop growth and among them nitrogen,
is most intensively used element. Nitrogen is often unavailable
in the correct form to be utilized by the plant.

In the present study, concentration of important mineral nu-
trients was analyzed in maize leaves grown in different condition.
In this study, the nutrient content of the maize leaves has been
assayed and result showed that concentration of mineral nutri-
ent was significantly high in the maize leaves grown in low soil
nutrient state supplemented with decaying macrophytes (Table
4).

So, use of decaying macrophytes as under soil bed has ability
to enhance the nutrient content of maize for its the growth and
development in low nutrient soil. Such organic agriculture plays
an important role in minimizing the use of inorganic fertilizers

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Jha, 2021 Macrophytes as a potential tool for crop production

Table 4. Effect of decaying macrophytes on minerals concentration under low soil nutrient condition in maize leaves (n=5).

S.No Sample N (mgkg-1) P (mgkg-1) K (mgkg-1) Zn (mgkg-1) Ca (mg kg-1)

1 Maize in low nutrient soil 26.3±1.02 2383.1±1.02 73246±0.21 724.4±1.04 13782±1.43

2 Maize in low nutrient soil + Decaying Macrophytes 32.6±0.11 3272.4±0.78 78362±0.64 729.2±2.11 14467±0.87

3 Maize in low nutrient soil + Chemical fertilizer 28.9±0.21 2668.2±0.65 76583±0.73 733.3±1.87 13947±1.23

Values are mean of three replications (p≤ 0.05; LSD test).

and consequently minimizes potential pollution and improves
soil quality. It is important to develop new applications which are
sustainable both agronomically and economically, as well as en-
vironmentally to produce safe food for human consumption. So
the use of biological based compounds of plant extracts is consid-
ered successful and environment friendly option for sustainable
agriculture.

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	Abstract
	Introduction
	Materials and Methods
	Aquatic plants collection and preparation of samples
	Estimation of mineral nutrient concentrations of soil, hydrophytes and maize leaves 
	Preparation of leaf extract
	Qualitative analysis of phyto-chemical screening
	Quantitative analysis on phytochemicals constituents
	Phyto-pathogenic microorganism
	Effect of decaying macrophytes on minerals concentration under low soil nutrient condition in maize leaves 
	Effect of decaying macrophytes on plant growth parameters
	Statistical Analysis

	Results and Discussion
	References

