SEED GERMINATION OF MASBEDDA (Gymnema sylvestre), A RARE MEDICINAL PLANT AS AFFECTED BY pH AND ORGANIC SOLVENTS

Abstract

The use of plants in treating diseases can be traced to the remote past. However due tolack of organized and scientific cultivation, proper management and awareness of socialfactors, the number of these medicinal plants is decreasing at an alarming rate. Gymnemasylvestre is one of rare medicinal plant species, which has high demand in the market.Since, little information is available on germination dynamics of Gymnema seeds, thepresent investigation was carried out to study the effect of pH and organic solvents ongermination of Gymnema sylvestre seedsFresh seeds taken from the plant were used for the experiment. Five pH solutions (i.e.4,6,7,8 andlO) were used to moist the filter papers in petri dishes, which contained seeds.A separate experiment was carried out to study the effect of organic solvents (i.e.Ethanol, Ether, Xylene, and Acetone) on germination following same procedure withusing distilled water as a control. eRD was used in both experiments with 20 replicateseach containing lO seedsResults showed that significantly (p<0.05) higher germination of seeds (56% and 52%) atpH 4 and 6 respectively, whereas the lowest germination (36%) showed at pH 10. Thehighest germination (62%) was recorded from the seeds treated with distilled water,followed by Xylene (42%) and Ether (39%). A significantly (p<O.05) lower germinationwas showed in Acetone (10%) and Ethanol (6%). According to the findings of theexperiment it can be concluded that slightly acidic media would be the best pH for thegermination of Gymnema sylvestre seeds, whereas the organic solutions showed negativeeffects.