Current Horticulture

The experiment was conducted to find out the effect of bakers yeast fermentation on leaf maturity to find out the particular age group of leaves suitable for fermentation, using Ficus religiosa L. leaves as the model substrate and to study the optimal fermentation time on other plant species to skeletonize, viz. leaves of Bauhinia purpurea, Tectona grandis, Ficus benjamina and Hiptage bengalensis. The study of the preparation of venation leaf skeletons was carried out by using bakers yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) to standardize the optimum yeast concentration required for the formation of venation skeletons. Various formulations of aqueous yeast solution were prepared. Among all the concentrations prepared, 2.0% was found to be the optimum yeast concentration for the formation of undamaged network of veins. The duration required by leaves to form the complete network of veins was also studied and the selected leaves showed some variation in time to form a complete network of veins. The study of effect of bakers yeast fermentation was carried on different age groups (maturity) of leaves and only matured leaves of 4–5 months old were found to be suitable under reaction conditions.