Plant Bioassay for Assessing the Effects ofVermicompost on Growth and Yield of Vignaradiata and Centella asiatica, Two ImportantMedicinal Plants

著者 Chiluvuru Nirmala, Tartte Vijaya, KallaChandra M.

journal orpublication title

Journal of Developments in SustainableAgriculture

volume 4number 2page range 160-164year 2009URL http://hdl.handle.net/2241/113310

Journal of Developments in Sustainable Agriculture 4: 160-164 (2009)

Plant Bioassay for Assessing the Effects of Vermicompost on Growth and Yield of Vigna radiata and Centella asiatica,

Two Important Medicinal Plants

Nirmala Chiluvurul, Vijaya Tartte2*, Chandra M. Kallal and Ramesh Kommalapati l

1 Department of Biotechnology, S.V. University, Tirupati-517 502, A.P., India 2 Department of Botany, S.V. University, Tirupati-517 502, A.P., India

Vigna radiata L. and Centella asiatica L. were grown with different concentrations of vermicompost applications in nursery conditions. Four treatments were established to evaluate the growth, biomass and chlorophyll content in these plants. The results suggested that there is a significant increase in growth and related parameters in all the treatments over the control. The plant response was maximum at 20% amendment of vermicompost to soil. The concentration of vermicompost above had no positive effect on plant growth. The physical and chemical properties of vermicompost obtained from four different species of earthworms were also evaluated to assess the quality of vermicompost.

Key words: Centella asiatica, Vigna radiata, Vermicompost, Growth parameters, Physiological parameters

Introduction

Vermicompost technology is an eco-friendly ap­proach for solid waste management. It not only helps in improving the soil fertility, but also helps in minimizing the use of chemical fertilizers to the extent of 25% to 50% and increase the crop yield by 15% to 20% (Nagavallemma et a!., 2006). The application of vermicompost resulted in high percent of germination (93%) in Vigna radiata compared to the control (84%) (Barik and Gulati, 2009). In Vigna unguiculata, application of ver­micompost results in more biomass compared to the biodigested slurry (Karmegam et al., 1999, Karmegam and Daniel, 2000). Field application of vermicompost resulted in improved growth and yield of sorghum (Patil and Sheelavantar, 2000). Earthworms produce their excreta which is two or three times richer in plant nutrients than the con­ventional compost (Tomati and Galli, 1995). Vigna radiata also known as golden gram mung bean belongs to the family Fabaceae and is used in cancer treatment. The administration of Vigna

Received: November 13, 2009, Accepted: December 7, 2009

radiata extracts significantly produced protective effects in peripheral blood cell counts and lympho­cyte blast-transformation function (Hien, 2002). The seeds are used both externally and internally in paralysis and rheumatism (Madhava et a!., 2008). The antioxidant properties of Vigna radiata were reported by Lee and Shibamoto (2000). Centella asiatica a herbaceous creeper belongs to the family Umbelliferae. It has been used in traditional med­icine in Asia for hundreds of years (Cheng et a!., 2000). In the Indian system of medicine it is used in the treatment of skin diseases, local wounds and also for improving general mental ability, jaundice and hepatitis (Arora et al., 2002). It is also believed to have beneficial effects in improving memory and treating mental fatigue, anxiety and eczema (Hamid et a!., 2002). In common with most traditional phytotherapeutic agents, C. asiatica is claimed to possess a wide range of phar­macological effects and is used for human wound healing, mental disorders, atherosclerosis, and fun­gicidal, antibacterial, antioxidant and anticancer purposes. C. asiatica has also been reported to be

* Corresponding author's current address: Asscoiate Professor, Department of Botany, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati-517 502, Chittoor (Dt), Andhra Pradesh, India. Tel: (Mobile) +91 9291600612, E-mail: tarttevijaya@yahoo.co.in

162 J. Dev. Sus. Agr. 4 (2)

The total chlorophyll content of the plants in each treatment was estimated according to the methods of Arnon (1949). The data obtained were sub~ jected to statistical analysis for mean and standard deviation using Microsoft Excel 2007 software pro­

gram.

Results and Discussion

Physical and chemical properties of vermicom­post obtained from four different species of earth­worms exhibited variations in the concentration of essential nutrients (Table 1). The pH values of the vermicompost produced by different species ranged between 6.63 to 6.9. The concentrations of macro and micro nutrients were high in the vermicompost obtained with Eudrilus eugenia and hence it was used as an amendment with soil in the present study.

The process of vermicomposting results in the production of nutrients such as nitrate or ammoni­um nitrate, exchangeable phosphorous and soluble potassium, calcium and magnesium that are readily taken by plants (Suthar and Singh, 2008a, b). The response of both the medicinal plants in the T3 and T4 treatments supports the hypothesis that in­tegrated nutrient supply, brings excellent biochem­ical changes in soil structure, which ultimately pro­mote plant growth and production (Surindra, 2009). In V. radiata the root and shoot length, total number of leaves and leaf area were signifi­cantly high in T3 followed by T4 and T2 plants

(Table 2). The fresh and dry biomass of the plants were also high in T 3 and T 4 plants when compared to the other treatments and control plants (T 1)' Similar results were observed in C. asiatica where there was an increase in growth and yield of the plants with an increase of vermicompost from 10 to 20%. Concentrations above 20% had no positive effect on growth of both plants (Fig. 2. a, b).

Vermicompost provides vital macronutrients such as N, P, K and micronutrients like Fe, Zn, Mn and Cu (Castillo et al., 2005) that stimulate cell division to promote growth and build plant biomass in plants (Rani and Srivastava, 1997). Sreenivas et al. (2000) studied the effect of application of vermicompost on soil available N and uptake of N by ridge gourd (Luffa acutangula) and observed that soil available N increased significantly with increasing levels of vermicompost and the highest N uptake was obtained. It has been recently es­timated that earthworms necessarily have to feed on microbes, particularly fungi for their protein nitrogen requirement (Ranganathan and Parthasarathi, 2000). Earthworms through a type of biological alchemy are capable of transforming garbage into gold (Vermi, 2001; Tara, 2003). Surindra (2009) reported that vermicompost appli­cation supports better growth of plants and higher yields than other composted farmyard manure and NPK fertilizers. The presence of P solubilizing organisms in vermicompost enhances the biological solubilization of P, thereby increasing the available

Table 1. Physical and chemical properties of vermicompost obtained from four different species of earthworms

Parameters Eudrilus eugenia Megascolex Perionix excavatus Eisenia fetida

pH 6.90 6.67 6.63 6.73 EC 8.79 4.72 3.86 8.53 N g.kg- 1 18 11. 6 12.9 11

P g.kg- 1 18 15 16 14 K g.kg- 1 12.6 2.9 2.9 3 Fe mg.kg- 1 3150 2970 2990 2930 Zn mg.kg- 1 95 71 88 62 Cu mg.kg- 1 23 23 19 19 Mn mg.kg- 1 240 110 120 200 S mg.kg- 1 500 260 320 285 Ca mg.kg- 1 30.2 23.4 22.9 26.4 Mg mg.kg- 1 36.4 20.8 23.4 26.3

Chiluvuru et al.: Response of Two Important Medicinal Plants to Vermicompost Application 163

Table 2. Response of Vigna radiata and Centella asiatica plants treated with different concentrations of vermicompost

Centella asiatica Vigna radiata Parameters

Tl T2 T3 T4 Tl T2 T3 T4

No. of Leaves 6.l6±0.75 8.50 ± 0.83 13.6±0.81 11.1 ± 0.98 5.66±0.81 8.16±0.98 12.3±0.51 11.1 ±0.98

Leaf area 48.1±5.86 58.7±3.85 76.0±2.35 69.0± 1.79 91.5±6.52 98.4±0.50 122.6±5.56 110.7±6.20

Shoot length 13.4 ± 0.39 14.2 ± 0.30 15.8±0.14 15.0±O.l8 6.50 ± 0.23 7.45 ± 0.24 9.88±0.65 9.05±0.43

Root length 12.6±0.66 13.8 ± 0.25 15.6±0.28 14.8±0.41 6.38±0.34 7.41 ± 0.33 9.96±0.58 9.36±0.35

Root fresh weight 2.60±0.38 3.60±0.34 5.85±0.25 4.83±0.28 3.75±0.32 4.80±0.30 6.51±0.23 5.40±0.23

Root dry weight 1.35±0.21 2.03±O.lO 3.40±0.20 2.63±0.27 2.21±0.24 2.51 ± 0.24 4.01 ± 0.43 3.26±0.29

Shoot fresh weight 2.46±0.33 3.30±0.38 5.33±0.27 4.41 ±0.18 2.45±O.l8 3.20±0.28 5.11±0.31 4.01 ±0.46

Shoot dry weight 1.15±O.l6 1.61 ± 0.16 2.70±0.15 2.20±0.17 1.65±0.18 2.30±0.26 4.25±0.39 3.30±0.28

Chlorophyll a (mg/ ml) 0.46±0.43 0.58±0.31 0.77 ± O.l2 0.68±0.09 0.53±0.24 0.64±0.33 0.82 ± 0.36 0.74±0.2 1

Chlorophyll b (mg/ ml) 0.85 ± 0.54 1.14±0.41 1.26±0.56 1.10± O.l4 0.96 ± 0.13 1.28±0.41 1.30±0.21 1.21 ± 0.26

Total Chlorophyll 1.53±0.21 2.11±0.32 2.32±0.41 2.0± 0.13 1.74 ± 0.33 1.98 ± 0.36 2.24±0.41 1.93±0.36 content (mg/ ml)

Fresh weight and dry weight are in g / plant; Leaf area is in cm2/ plant. Each value represents the mean of six replications.

(a) Vigna radiata (b) Centella asiatica

Control

Fig. 2. Response to vermicompost application.

P20 S status of soil (Shukla and Ptyagi, 2009). Leaf growth allows plants to increase their photo­synthetic capacity while root growth allows plants to further exploit the soil for water and nutrients (Karmegam and Daniel, 2000).

The content of total chlorophyll was influenced by vermicompost application in both plants. In V. radiata and C. asiatica the chlorophyll contents were lower in control plants and there was a grad­ual increase in the chlorophyll content with in­creases in the concentration of vermicompost. The chlorophyll at 20% vermicompost was higher than the 30% amendment. Mishra et al. (2005) showed that vermicompost had beneficial effects on growth parameters, seed germination, chlorophyll concen­tration and yield of rice. The presence of high Fe

content in compost coupled with availability of all essential nutrients had a stimulatory effect on chlo­rophyll synthesis in treated plants (Bityutskii and Kaidun, 2008).

Based on the results obtained in the present study, we conclude that the application of vermi­compost at 20% concentration is favourable for obtaining maximum growth and yield of Vigna radiata and Centlla asiatica to meet the pharma­ceutical demands.

Conclusion

The organic solid wastes were vermicomposted using Eudrilus eugenia, Eisenia felida, Perionix ex­cavatus and Megascolex species of earthworms. The vermicompost produced by Eudrilus eugenia

164 J. Dev. Sus. Agr. 4 (2)

was applied at different concentrations to the me­dicinal plants Vigna radiata and Centella asiatica. We report here that there was higher plant growth, yield, and chlorphyll content in both medicinal plants that received vermicompost at a 20% con­centration to the soil than others concentrations and the control. The growth and production in vermicompost treated plants may be due to the presence of certain phytohormones in the worm worked materials. The higher concentration of soil organic matter in worm casts creates suitable microclimatic conditions in soils for rapid mineral­ization and transformation of plant nutrients in the soil. Our data clearly demonstrate that vermicom­post is an excellent plant growth promoter for medicinal plants of pharamceutical importance.

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