Effect of various doses of urea, superphosphate and farmyard manure on the alkaloidal contents of leaves of solanum aviculare forst

ABSTRACT

In an investigation conducted to study the effect of different doses viz. 1gm/pot, 1.5gm/pot and 2gm/pot each of urea, superphosphate and farmyard manure on the production of crude alkaloids and moisture contents in 2 and 5-week old leaves of Solanum aviculare Forst. Urea 2gm dose was found to perform the best. Two week old leaves yielded 2.920% and 5 week old leaves produced 1.420% of crude alkeloidal contents. It was observed that alkaloid production capacity in leaves diminishes with age by 0.5%. The dry weight of leaves decreased by increasing the dose of each fertilizer. The maximum dry weight of 7.9, 6.4 and 7.3 gms were observed at 1gm/pot treatment of each fertilizer respectively. On the contrary the moisture contents increased by increasing fertilizer dose