Role of Growth Regulators in Enhancement of Germination of Swertia chirayita (Roxb. ex fleming) H. Karst

Swertia chirayita is a native to temperate Himalaya, found at an altitude of 1200-3000m from Kashmir to Bhutan, and in the Khasi hills at 1200-1500m. Its medicinal usage is reported in Indian pharmaceutical codex, the British and the American pharmacopoeias and in different traditional system of medicines. It has an established domestic and international market. It is one of the rare but potent medicinal plants of the Himalaya to increase the economy of the local people and on other hand it has high market demand as raw materials for different pharmaceuticals usages, hence, the species is highly priced. But, the regeneration of this species is possible only through seeds, studies to understand germination behaviors assume great importance. Thus, this present study deals with improvement in seed germination via various hormonal treatments (GA₃, IAA and KNO₃) among these treatment with GA₃ were found to be the best and also germination mean time reduced up to 8 days. With respect to the germination percentage and mean germination time, a high degree of variation in different populations and treatment is recorded.