Bioactive substances isolated from a cactus, Hylocereus undatus, and allelopathy

Abstract

Many kinds of chemicals as bioactive substances have been found in living leaves or fallen leaves as allelochemicals, but no detail of report for allelopathy in fruits, especially in cactus one. In this study, we investigated bioactive substances from a cactus, Hylocereus undatus .
It is well known that some flavonoids possess allelopathic activities in plants. The fruits (Hira-ei line A) were used as material. Three kinds of flavonoids and two bisoactive substances were isolated. After the isolation of active substances in fruits, the contribution as allelopathic substance was tested by the shoot growth test of cockscomb plant and conidial germination test of Neurospora crassa and different effects were shown.