Weeds are unwanted plants, which are not only dangerous to humans, but they are responsible economic losses in agriculture sector. Parthenium hysterophorus, Lantana camara and Phalaris minor are recognized as global invasive species and sport status of global weeds.
Parthenium hysterophorus a.k.a Congress grass causes a wide variety of allergies to human apart from interfering the agriculture. Lantana is a bushy herb, which is responsible for toxicity to the livestock, interference in regeneration of forests and as a predominant weed in more than 14 cash crops. The prominent ones include Coffee, Oil Palms, Coconut, Bananas, Pineapples, Sugarcane, Tea, Rubber and Rice. It has been recognized has a weed in 47 countries of the world. Phalaris minor is an important weed in wheat and rice cultivation. This weed has become resistant to isoproturon (triazine class of herbicides) in India.
Sancontrol is a biorational post-emergence pesticide, which is having a potential to control the weeds viz. Lantana, Parthenium and Phalaris. It consists of a combination of bioactive compounds, produced by an indigenous fungal isolate – Alternaria alternata. A process of their production through fermentation route has already been standardized. The formulation effectively controls 2-4 week old weeds within 100- 160 hours post treatment (hpt) under the laboratory conditions. It effectively kills the 16-24 week old weeds within 7-9 day after application under field conditions.