Sushma Dave and Jagadish Chandra Tarafdar
The amount of saponin accumulated in the tuber of safed musli (Chlorophytum borivilianum) was evaluated with or without mycorrhizal inoculation in a green house experiment conducted over a 270 days period. Differences in the saponin concentration and the total amount in tuber between the treatment and between the developmental stages were examined. The mycorrizal treatment included three species viz Glomus fasciculatum, Glomus intraradices and Glomus mosseae. The amount of saponin accumulated in tuber increased with growth and it was under maximum Glomus mosseae infected plant. Mycorrhizal inoculated compared to non inoculated plants resulted up to 25-fold improvement in saponin content at critical growth stage (45 days) and up to 4-fold improvement at crop harvest i.e. 270 days. Glomus mosseae was found to be most efficient mycorrhizal species. The present results suggest the possibility to stimulate the saponin content by treating the tubers with mycorrhizal inoculation, which improved the therapeutic value of safed musli (Chlorophytum borivilianum) tubers.
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