Germination and growth of datura innoxia mill.-III physiological influence of pre-sowing seed treatment with vitamins on growth, development and alkaloid production

Datura innoxia Mill, is an important medicinal plant, being a source of scopolamine an alkaloid of high medicinal value, but has not received the attention of researchers it deserves. In a simple randomized pot culture experiment, the residual effect of pre-sowing seed treatment with vitamins B[1], B[6], B-complex and C [considered as regulators for growth and development of plants by many workers], each at 500 ppm, on the physiomorphological characteristics of Datura innoxia Mill, was studied under natural conditions at three growth stages. Vitamin treatments, in general, significantly enhanced total leaf area and dry weight plant[-1]. In addition, average fresh weight and dry weight of whole plants were found to be increased by the treatments. Growth components, viz. absolute growth rate [AGR], leaf area duration [LAD] and biomass duration [BMD], leaf nutrient content and nitrate reductase activity [NRA], studied at 60, 120 and 180 days after sowing [DAS], were enhanced by the treatments. A decrease in leaf NPK content with advancement in growth was also observed. Leaf NRA and total leaf alkaloid yield were maximum at flowering stage [120 DAS], Vitamin B[6] followed by B-complex proved best in improving the physiomorphology of the treated plants in terms of overall performance, including growth, total leaf alkaloid yield and fruit number plant[-1]

Germination and growth of dature innoxia mill i in vitro studies on the effect of pre-sowing seed treatment with selected vitamins on germination and seedling growth

An inexpensive technique for ensuring high percentage of in vitro seed germination of Datura innoxia Mill. a hard to germinate medicinal plant producing scopolamine, was tested successfully in a factorial randomised experiment. Assay of seeds for their native vitamin B1, B6 and C contents revealed very low concentrations. They were, therefore, treated for 18 h at 20°C with 0, 250, 500, 750 or 1,000 ppm of these three vitamins as well as B-complex and incubated in petri dishes for 5 weeks. Counts, made at weekly intervals, indicated 28 days as the optimal stage for germination. Growth parameters, studied at 35 days were found to be significantly affected by all treatments at P=0.05. Out of the four vitamins treated, B6 and, among the concentrations, 500 ppm alone and in combination proved most efficacious in breaking seed dormancy and accelerating early seedling growth of D. innoxia

Effect of graded application of nitrogen on growth, yield and quality of kalonji [nigella sativa linn] in pot culture

Compared with the control without added nitrogen, Nigella sativa plants supplied with nitrogen showed significantly enhanced performance in pot culture at each of the 3 stages of sampling [70, 110 and 140 DAS]. Of the doses applied, 0.92 g N/pot proved best for most of the growth, yield and quality parameters selected. Thus, application of 0.92 g N/pot enhanced shoot length by 29.46% and 6.17%, number of branches by 40.62% and 55.11%, fresh weight by 42.38% and 19.23%, over the no-N control, at 70 and 110 DAS respectively. Among yield characteristics noted at 110 DAS, number of buds was increased by 77.02% and number of flowers, by 62.6%. At 140 DAS, application of 0.92 g N/pot was noted to promote number of pods/plant by 45.78%, number of seeds/plant by 68.43%, seed yield/ plant by 123.96%, oil content of seeds by 7.00% and total oil yield/plant by 425.86%. Incidently, this dose of nitrogen increased leaf N-content at 70 DAS by 24.25% over the control. Apparently, the leaf-N in this treatment interacted optimally with other nutrients, particulary phosphorus, to enhance the solar energy harvesting capacity of the treated plants