Evaluation of seed germination in Andrographis echioides (L.) under open and in vitro conditions

Abstract

Andrographis echioides (L.), Nees (Gopuram thanki) is one of the important medicinal plant which is given importance recently for its excellent medicinal properties. The erratic germination behaviour of Andrographis seeds is a great barrier in multiplication of such species under field conditions. Hence an experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design comprising of six treatments. Among these treatments, the earliest seed germination (8.67 days) was recorded in the treatment comprised of MS medium supplemented with BAP (1 mgl-1) under in vitro conditions. The germination percentage (67.10%) of seeds and survival percentage (79.93%) of seedlings were also recorded high in the same treatment. Hence Andrographis echioides seeds can be uniformly germinated for large scale cultivation and also can be used as a base for various research trials.