**3.3** *Tithonia rotundifolia* **(Mill.) S. F. Blake**

It belongs to family Asteraceae/Compositae and is commonly known as red sunflower, rooisonneblom, Japanese sunflower, shrub sunflower, and tree marigold. It is rich in inulin [6]. Thus, it serves as renewable raw material for fructose syrup (d-fructose) production. It is also grown as a green manure. But its high propagation frequency has forced to classify it as alien, invasive, competitive, allelopathic [7], noxious category 1 weed. There are reports on these weeds competing with crop plants and shading out native vegetation in the humid and subhumid tropics of South America, South East Asia, and tropical and subtropical Africa. Thus, the overall deleterious impressions put forth by this weed need to be rectified by an ecofriendly way.

#### **Figure 3.**

*Inulin-rich weeds under present investigation: (a)* Agave sisalana*, (b)* Cosmos bipinnatus*, and (c)* Tithonia rotundifolia*.*
