Early growth, biomass and phenolics response of Labisia pumila var. alata seedlings to fertilisation and soil amendments

Ahmad Nazarudin Mohd Roseli; Farah Fazwa Mohd Ariff; Norhayati Saffie; Jeyanny Vijayanathan; Syaliny Ganasamurthy; Syafiqah Nabilah Samsul Bahari

Early growth, biomass and phenolics response of Labisia pumila var. alata seedlings to fertilisation and soil amendments

2019

Labisia pumila is an important herbal plant belonging to the Myrsinaceae family. Water decoction of this herb is traditionally used for pre- and post-partum treatments to regulate body weight, prevent photoaging and has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal effects. A study was conducted to determine the effects of fertilisers and soil amendments on 8-month tissue cultured L. pumila at nursery stage. Six treatments were used in this study which were inorganic fertiliser (NPK Green 15:15:15) at 90 kg N/ha (T1) which acted as control, inorganic fertiliser with biochar (5%) (T2), controlled release fertiliser (CRF) (NPK granular 10:15:17:2:5) (T3), CRF with biochar (5%) (T4), CRF with compost (5%) (T5), and CRF with compost (5%) and biochar (5%) (T6). The experiment was arranged in a randomised complete block design and replicated 16 times. At the end of 6 months after transplanting, our findings showed that T4 and T5 gave the best growth performances in terms of stem height, leaf number, leaf width, leaf length, collar diameter and leaf dry weight. T6 gave the highest value for total phenolic content of 310 mg/100 g GAE followed by T5 with 202 mg/100 g GAE. The elevated levels of soil N, C, P, Ca and Mg in the T5 and T6 caused increased seedling yield and enhanced TPC values. Therefore, mass production of L. pumila may consider the utilisation of controlled release fertilisers with organic compost and biochar.

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