ROOTING ASSOCIATES IN FOLIATED APICAL BUD CUTTINGS OF GYMNEMA SYLVESTRER.BR.

摘要

Gymnema sylvestre (Gudmar) is an important medicinal plant belonging to family Asclepiadaceae. It acts as sugar destroyer in Ayurvedic system of medicine. This plant is the second best selling medicinal plant in the world market requiring a cost-effective and simple method of cultivation to meet its growing demand. Availability of the species in natural forests is decreasing very fast due to over and unsustainable harvesting and lack of effective methods of vegetative propagation for its cultivationon commercial scale. The present demand is mostly met from wild collection. The present study was, therefore, undertaken to propagate G. sylvestre through foliated apical bud cuttings and also to adjudicate the functional relationship between different associates contributing from rooting to survival of foliated apical bud cuttings. The different response variables with their remaining 09 independent variables presented different models of multilinear regression function with different magnitudes of variance.viz. multiple correlation uefficients (R2), adjusted R Square, and levels of their significance. The foliated apical bud cuttings of G. sylvestre have an ability to root and survive to an extent of 96 per cent. Multilinear regression presented different levels of significance for the variance with the variable response variable..The different associates in rooting of foliated apical bud cuttings of G. sylvestre inferred different magnitudes of positive and negative correlation. The rooting percentage conferred significant negative correlation with the length of cuttings (r = - 0.608*. P < 0.05, DF = 11), and the number of leaves per cutting (r = - 0.564* P < 0.05, DF =11). The length of cuttings positively increased the number of leaves per cutting (r = 0.912**, P < 0.01, DF =11), mean length of the roots (r =0.903**, P < 0.01, DF=11) and mean length of the longest roots (r = 0.542**, P < 0.01, DF =11). However, the increase in the length of cuttings significantly reduced the weight of existingleaves on that cutting due to size factors of the existing leaves on long cuttings ( r = - 0.652**, P < 0.01, DF=11). The't' value for length of cuttings adduced a significant influence on weight of cuttings ('t '=3.927*, P < 0.05), followed by weight ofsingle leaf('t'= -3.647*, P < 0.05). The 't' value (Coefficient/Standard error) of individual independent variables failed to exhibit any significant influence to change the number of leaves per cutting ft' = - 0.506NS to - 2.575NS, P > 0.05) in the present model of multilinear regression. The length of cuttings presented a significant negative correlation with the weight of roots ('t' = - 3.124*, P < 0.05). Likewise, the mean length of the roots as explanatoryvariable exhibited positive correlation with the weight of roots as criterion variable ('t' = 3.436*, P < 0.05). The't' value (Coefficient/ Standard error) of individual independent variables failed to confer significant influence to change the number ofprimary roots per cutting ('t' = - 0.0.044NS to 1.136NS, P > 0.05) . The length of cuttings presented a significant negative correlation with the weight of roots ('t' = - 3.124*, P < 0.05). Altogether, three traits out of nine viz., length of cutting ('t'= 4.583* P < 0.05), weight of single leaf ft' = -3.246* P < 0.05) and number of primary roots ('t'= 3.436*, P < 0.05) surmised significant influence on the response variable i.e. mean length of the roots. The traits conferring significant contributioncan be considered to prepare foliated cuttings for a functional model to propagate G. sylvestre by foliated apical bud cuttings on commercial scale.