Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Applied Soil Ecology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apsoil Anise, parsley and rocket as nematicidal soil amendments and their impact on non-target soil organisms Ntalli Nikoletta a, ⁎ , Zioga Despoina b , Argyropoulou D. Maria c , Papatheodorou M. Efimia d,e , Menkissoglu-Spiroudi Urania b , Monokrousos Nikolaos e,f, ⁎ a Benaki Phytopathological Institute, 8 S. Delta Str., Department of Pesticides' Control and Phytopharmacy, Athens 14561, Greece b Pesticide Science Laboratory, School of Agriculture, Faculty of Agriculture Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece c Department of Zoology, School of Biology, Faculty of Science, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece d Department of Ecology, School of Biology, Faculty of Science, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece e International Hellenic University, 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece f Department of Soil Science of Athens, Institute of Soil and Water Resources, Hellenic Agricultural Organization-DEMETER, 14123 Athens, Greece ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Urease β-glucosidase Acid phosphatase Phospholipids Free-living nematodes J2 Meloidogyne ABSTRACT Amending soil with organic material of botanical origin can be an effective alternative to the use of synthetic pesticides to control plant-parasitic nematodes. In a pot experiment, we evaluated the effects of anise (Pimpinella anisum), parsley (Petroselinum crispum) and rocket (Eruca sativa) as soil amendments on Meloidogyne incognita and on growth of host tomato plants. Moreover, we evaluated their effects on other soil microorganisms using phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) and enzymatic activity analysis, as well as on the entire free-living nematode species pool and specifically J2 of M. incognita. We compared our results with two commercial nematicides, namely the synthetic fluopyram and the bionematicide Nemagold®. All three botanicals significantly decreased numbers of J2 M. incognita in soil, as well as the number of nematode females and galls in host roots. Parsley and rocket had also a positive effect on tomato root growth. All botanical treatments favored soil microorganisms, both in terms of biomass and functionality, as indicated by urease and β-glucosidase activities, enhancing also the populations of bacterivorous nematodes. The synthetic fluopyram was effective against M. incognita, with no effect on the microbial community, but it seriously suppressed free living nematodes. Νemagold was not ef- fective against root-knot nematodes. Thus, soil amendments with anise, parsley and rocket are promising for root-knot nematode control in sustainable agriculture. 1. Introduction The root-knot nematodes represent possibly the world's most da- maging agricultural pests, dramatically reducing yields and sometimes causing total crop loss (Ntalli and Caboni, 2012). Since the European legislation (CD 91/414/EE, 1991 and EC 1107, 2009) severely re- stricted the vast use of synthetic pesticides, only a few nematicides are still on the market, for which degrading microbe populations have been build up in the soils, causing low efficacy (Oka, 2010). There is there- fore a progressive need for alternative nematicidal tools that are equally effective, readily available, affordable and safer to the farmer and consumer (Renčo and Kováčik, 2015). Τhe incorporation of plant ma- terials that slowly release their bioactive compounds into the soil, acting as biofumigants, has been successfully used to control plant- parasitic nematodes since 1870 (Van Berkum and Hoestra, 1979). A characteristic paradigm of a biofumigant of plant origin is the nema- ticidal isothiocyanates that is the hydrolysis by-products of the gluco- sinolates, after Brassicaceae tissues' rupture (Smedley, 1939; Ntalli and Caboni, 2017). Other nematicidal chemical groups of compounds in- clude the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contained in rocket (Aissani et al., 2015), parsley (Caboni et al., 2015) and anise (Ntalli et al., 2011). Interestingly, nematode suppression due to soil amend- ments involves the combination of several mechanisms, such as the release of contained nematicidal compounds, the release of degradation products, e.g. ammonia and fatty acids, the enhancement and/or in- troduction of antagonistic microorganisms, the increase in plant toler- ance, the mechanical disturbance and changes in the soil environment that are unfavorable for nematodes (Oka, 2010; Vervoort et al., 2014). Apart from their nematicidal properties, soil bio amendments may exhibit secondary beneficial effects for soil microbes, reduce water run- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2019.05.024 Received 25 January 2019; Received in revised form 25 May 2019; Accepted 27 May 2019 ⁎ Corresponding authors. E-mail addresses: nntali@agro.auth.gr (N. Ntalli), nmonokro@bio.auth.gr (N. Monokrousos). Applied Soil Ecology 143 (2019) 17–25 0929-1393/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. T