Response of some important medicinal plants of Uttarakhand to different soil amendments

Abstract

In this study, the effect of various treatment combinations on the growth parameters of medicinal plants and and soil properties under medicinal plants was studied. The experiment was conducted at Forest Research Institute, Dehradun to study the growth parameters of the selected medicinal plant species viz, Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha) Ocimum africanum (Lemon tulsi) Ocimum tenuiflorum (Kapoor tulsi) Andrographis paniculata (Kalmegh) under different treatments using soil “soilization” technique. In this technique commercially available sand made productive and fertile by applying various treatment combination SAND + COMPOST, SAND + COMPOST + CMC SAND + COMPOST + CMC + NPK, CONTROL (Sand). With the results obtained, it was evident that the media with only sand was not sufficient for the optimum growth of the vegetation. The yields of three species i.e. Ashwagandha, Lemon Tulsi, Kapur Tulsi were much higher by using soil “soilization” technique which was used in three other treatment pots. Only Kalmegh species deferred by failing to grow in the sand and the NPK rich media. Out of the four treatments, the best results were obtained in the Sand+CMC+Compost media.