DYNAMIC INTERVENTIONS OF GROWTH REGULATION IN CALENDULA (CALENDULA OFFICINALIS L.) AS INFLUENCED BY GOLD-NANOPARTICLE

Abstract

Nanotechnology is the art and science of manipulating material at atomic scale. It can also be defined as the designing, characterization, production and application of structures, devices and systems by controlling shape and size at the nanoscale. The present investigation was carried out to assess the effect of Gold-nanoparticle treatment on vegetative and flowering attributes of Calendula. Experiment consisted of four treatments (5, 10, 15, 20 ppm Goldnanoparticle), along with control and was laid out in Randomized block design. Among the various treatments, application of 10 ppm of Gold-nanoparticle (T2 ) was found best for most of the parameters viz., plant height (73.95 cm), plant spread (54.62 cm), number of branches (25.15), number of leaves (127.55), number of flower (131.30), flower diameter (7.06 cm), flower weight (4.31), minimum days to flower bud initiation (30.85 days) and Flowering duration (105.15 days over the rest treatments. Treatment T4 (20 ppm Gold-nanoparticle) showed poor growth in most of the recorded parameters due to the toxicity of Gold-nanoparticle at higher concentration. Nanoparticles when applied to the plants can help them to cope up the adverse condition by releasing the ROS enzyme (Reverse Oxygen Species). During stress conditions ROS enzyme releases and antioxidant defense system of plant gets activated to maintain the normal equilibrium. As a result additional amount of proteins, carbohydrates and DNAs are formed. These additional molecules enhance plant growth and improve yield.