Weeds have been a major threat in agriculture for several generations as they lead to decreases in productivity and cause significant economic losses. Parasitic plants are a specific type of weed causing losses in crops of great relevance. A new strategy has emerged in the fight against parasitic plants, which is called ‘suicidal germination’ or the ‘honey-pot strategy’. Regarding the problem of weed control from an ecological point of view, it is interesting to investigate new natural compounds with allelopathic activity with the aim of developing new natural herbicides that can inhibit the growth of weeds without damaging the environment. Safflower crops have been affected by parasitic plants and weeds and, as a consequence, the secondary metabolites exuded by safflower roots have been studied. The sesquiterpene lactone dehydrocostuslactone was isolated and characterised, and the structurally related costunolide was identified by UHPLC-MS/MS in safflower root exudates. These sesquiterpene lactones have been shown to stimulate germination of Phelipanche ramosa and Orobanche cumana seeds. In addition, these compounds were phytotoxic on three important weeds in agriculture, namely Lolium perenne, Lolium rigidum and Echinochloa crus-galli. The exudation of the strigolactones solanacol and fabacyl acetate have also been confirmed by UHPLC-MS/MS. The study reported here contributes to our knowledge of the ecological role played by some secondary metabolites. Moreover, this knowledge could help identify new models for the development of future agrochemicals based on natural products.

中文翻译：

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红花根（Carthamus tinctorius）对寄生植物发芽和杂草控制的植物化学研究。

几代以来，杂草一直是农业的主要威胁，因为它们会导致生产力下降并造成重大的经济损失。寄生植物是一种特殊类型的杂草，在相关作物中引起损失。在对抗寄生植物的斗争中出现了一种新的策略，称为“自杀发芽”或“蜜罐策略”。从生态学角度考虑杂草控制问题，研究具有化感活性的新的天然化合物以开发能够抑制杂草生长而不破坏环境的新型天然除草剂是有趣的。红花作物受到寄生植物和杂草的影响，因此，对红花根分泌的次生代谢产物进行了研究。分离并鉴定倍半萜内酯脱氢肋骨内酯，并通过UHPLC-MS / MS在红花根分泌物中鉴定出结构相关的肋骨内酯。这些倍半萜内酯已被证明能刺激玉米的萌发。金钱豹和Orobanche cumana种子。此外，这些化合物对农业上的三种重要杂草有毒，这些杂草是黑麦草，硬叶黑麦草和E藜。UHPLC-MS / MS也已确认了松香醇内酯solanacol和乙酸法巴西酯的渗出。此处报道的研究有助于我们了解某些次生代谢产物的生态作用。此外，这些知识可以帮助确定用于开发基于天然产物的未来农用化学品的新模型。