| Summary: | Andrographis paniculata (Hempedu bumi) is a medicinal plant that widely distributed in a
variety of habitats throughout the world. It has a wide range of medicinal and
pharmacological application. This study is aims to investigate the effect of different
growing media and media water status on the growth and bioactive compound
(andrographolide) content of A: paniculata. An experiment was conducted at the
greenhouse Institute of Sustainable Agrotechnology (INSAT), Universiti Malaysia Perlis
(UniMAP) during April 2012 to February 2013. The experiment was laid out in randomized
complete block design (RCBD) of two factors consisting of 9 treatments with 3
replications. Each replication consisted of 24 plants. Three different growing media were
applied, namely compost, topsoil and sand. The growing media were combined in different
ratios (1:2:3, 2:2:1 and 3:2:1) with three different soil water potential; -20 kPa (high), -60
kPa (medium) and -100 kPa (low). Soil water potential in each growing media was
measured by gypsum block. The crops were harvested 115 Days after transplanting at
maturity. Analysis of andrographolide content in each treatment was analyzed by using
High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) for each of plant parts (leaves, stems
and roots). Generally, there were significant increases (P <0.05) in plant height, number of
leaves per plant, number of branches per plant, diameter of stem, leaves dry weight, stem
dry weight, root dry weight, total dry weight per plant and andrographolide content in each
plant part of plants that had been planted in media mixture contained compost: topsoil: sand
(3:2:1) under high soil water potential compared to other treatments. However, the root to
shoot ratio of plant that had been planted on the lowest compost ratio under low soil water
potential produced the highest ratio compared to other treatments. Significant interaction
effects between growing media and soil water potential were observed for all parameters.
The study concluded that the application of potting mixture that contained compost, topsoil
and sand in a ratio 3:2:1 with well water supplied are recommended for A. paniculata
grown under greenhouse condition.
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