Effect of plant growth regulators on rooting and shooting of Indian sarsaparilla (Hemidesmus indicus L.)

Indian sarsaparilla (Hemidesmus indicus L.) is an important medicinal plant widely used in Indian systems of medicine as an antipyretic, blood purifier and refrigerant. It is under the list of endangered species in India due to the indiscriminate collection and utilization. To bring the plant under commercial cultivation, standardization of propagation through cuttings with different plant growth regulators was attempted in this study. The cuttings (20 cm length with 3–4 nodes) were treated with different plant growth regulators viz., IAA (1000, 1500 and 2000 ppm), IBA (1000, 1500 and 2000 ppm) and GA3 (1000, 1500 and 2000 ppm) for three to five seconds and subjected to rooting under mist chamber condition. Observations on days taken for rooting, number of roots per cutting, length of the root, fresh weight of the roots per cutting, dry weight of roots per cuttings, days taken for sprouting, shoot length, number of shoots, fresh shoot weight and dry shoot weight were recorded. Among the different treatments, cuttings treated with IBA 1500 ppm registered early rooting (26 days), increased root length (27.6 cm), highest number of roots (64) and fresh root weight (1.1g). The shoot characters like early sprouting (20 days), highest shoot length (43.5 cm), highest number of shoots (48), highest fresh shoot weight (3.1g) and dry shoot weight (1.1g) were also recorded in the treatment IBA 1500 ppm. Thus, this present investigation revealed that, the cuttings of Indian sarsaparilla treated with IBA 1500 ppm under mist chamber condition had significant effect on all root and shoot parameters and it was found to be the most appropriate concentration for the rooting of cuttings.