Phytotoxicity of Salvia spp. exudates

Data collection and advanced statistical analysis in phytotoxic activity of aerial parts exudates of Salvia spp

“…The results of the experimental germination are automatically placed in the database structure, together with the morphological data collected on the subsequent growth of seedlings (seedling height, cotyledon length, root length, seedling weight). In addition, the database was associated to a specific website through which the user can view the results of the germination indices usually reported in the literature (Total Germination -GT, Speed of Germination -S, Speed of Accumulated Germination -AS, Coefficient of the Rate of Germination -CRG),and the newly defined indices (Weighted Average Damage -WAD, Differential Weighted Average Damage -DWAD, Germination Weighted Average Velocity -GWAV) (Bisio et al, 2010b) and other variables usually recorded in experiments of phytotoxicity (LC50, LC90). This specific web-based tool was designed to highlight automatically significant differences between the species, it implements the algorithms to calculate the one-way ANOVA followed by Duncan's multiple range test (Duncan, 1955).…”

“…The normalised structure of the data collected into the database simplifies their use for the automatic calculation of several inferential statistical parameters. It has been shown (Bisio et al, 2010b) that these parameters cannot completely describe the differences in the activity of the several Salvia species involved in this experiment. For this reason, a set of more advanced analytical approaches can be applied.…”

“…In addition, new formulas describing the phytotoxic damage were used: Weighted Average Damage (WAD), Differential Weighted Average Damage (DWAD), Germination Weighted Average Velocity (GWAV) (Bisio et al, 2010b). In order to provide a clearer description of these new indices, their mathematical formulations are listed below:…”

“…The lethal concentrations needed to reduce germination by 50% (LC50) and by 90% (LC90) were also considered (Bisio et al, 2010b).…”

“…were extracted and used for the germination and growth tests as previously reported (Bisio et al, 2010b) for both the Petri dish and the pot experiments. Four concentrations of testing solutions of Salvia exudates were used.…”