REGULAR ARTICLE Glucosinolate content and nematicidal activity of Brazilian wild mustard tissues against Meloidogyne incognita in tomato Rosângela D. L. Oliveira & Onkar D. Dhingra & André O. Lima & Gulab N. Jham & Mark A. Berhow & Ray K. Holloway & Steven F. Vaughn Received: 8 June 2010 / Accepted: 26 October 2010 / Published online: 19 November 2010 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 Abstract The wild mustard (Brassica juncea L.), an invasive weed of winter crops in Brazil, was evaluated for glucosinolate content of its plant tissues and nematicidal activity of its dry leaf meal (LM), whole seed meal (WSM) and hexane defatted seed meal (DSM) against Meloidogyne incognita on tomato plants. Sinigrin was the major glucosinolate in LM, WSM and DSM, occurring at concentration of 0.11, 12.2 and 21.9 mg/gdw, respectively. Allyl isothiocyanate (AITC) was the major degradation product and its concentration was highest in DSM followed by WSM and LM. The number of galls, egg masses and eggs on tomato plants was reduced by over 90% by amending soil with 1.6% LM, 0.2% WSM, or 0.05% DSM. Exposure to the volatiles from the amended soils reduced egg eclosion. The soil amendment with LM, WSM and DSM killed the second stage juveniles of M. javanica, M. enterolobii (=M. mayaguensis) and Heterodera glycines. The efficacy of the LM, WSM and DSM for nematode suppression was related to the amount of AITC released in soil. Keywords Allelochemicals . Isothiocyanate . Glucosinolate . Brassica juncea . Mustard meal . Root- knot nematode . Sinapis arvensis Introduction Wild Brazilian mustard is an annual herbaceous invasive weed plant in winter crops especially in southern and southeastern Brazil. It also grows widely on the waste lands, land not cultivated during winter, orchards and plantation crops, and also along the road sides. It has no commercial value although its seeds contain about 35% oil. In studies aimed at finding its utility, its seed oil was characterized and found to be a good biodiesel, suggesting that it can be cultivated as biodiesel crop (Jham et al. 2009). It belongs to Brassicaceae family, and based on morphological characteristics this weed mustard had been considered as Sinapis arvensis L. (Lorenzi 2000). However, later studies questioned this identity, and based on chromosome number it was identified as Brassica juncea (L.) Czern. (Jham et al. 2009). Most plant species of Brassicaceae family contain glucosinolates (GLNs), Plant Soil (2011) 341:155–164 DOI 10.1007/s11104-010-0631-8 Responsible Editor: Juha Mikola. R. D. L. Oliveira (*) : O. D. Dhingra : A. O. Lima : G. N. Jham Departamento de Fitopatologia, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, 36570-000 Viçosa, MG, Brazil e-mail: rdlima@ufv.br G. N. Jham : M. A. Berhow : R. K. Holloway : S. F. Vaughn United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Peoria, IL 61604, USA