Chia: Host Status for Meloidogyne incognita and Activity of Plant Extracts
Chia seeds (Salvia hispanica L.) are utilized in various ways, including food, beverages, oil production, and animal feed, while all parts of the plant are traditionally used in medicine. The rising demand for chia seeds has highlighted the need for better disease management practices. Although plant-parasitic nematodes have been detected in other Salvia species, none have been previously reported in S. hispanica. Additionally, chia has not been evaluated for its potential to produce compounds that are active against these nematodes.
In this study, aqueous extracts from the shoots and roots of six chia lines—Brad’s Organic, Cono, E2, G3, G5, and W13.1—were tested in laboratory assays. Some concentrations of the extracts exhibited nematotoxic effects, killing around one-third of Meloidogyne incognita (Kofoid & White) Chitwood second-stage juveniles (J2s) with compound W13 shoot extracts and nearly half with root extracts. However, the extracts generally did not affect nematode egg hatching. Greenhouse trials showed that all six chia lines served as hosts for M. incognita. Chia line G3 had about twice the number of eggs per gram of root compared to Brad’s Organic or Cono.
When cucumber seedlings were transplanted into soil mixed with chopped chia shoots (2.3 or 2.5% fresh shoot weight per dry soil weight), there was no suppression of galling or egg production on cucumber roots. To our knowledge, this is the first report indicating that chia can serve as a host for M. incognita (or any plant-parasitic nematode) and that its shoots and roots produce compounds that are active against nematodes.