Efficacy of am fungi in improving petroleum content of Calotropis procera under stressed soil conditions

Overexploitation of petroleum has resulted in global energy crisis. Now-a-days, petroleum is not relied upon as a stable and economic raw material to satisfy tremendous demand for energy. Worldwide efforts are being made to explore the possibility of using Petroleum derived from bio-crude, extracted from the petro crops as an alternate source of energy. The present study has been undertaken to confirm the efficacy of Glomus claroideum in improving the biomass and bio-crude content in Calotropis procera in a variety of wasteland soils viz., alkali soil, brick-kiln soil, calcareous soil, saline soil and silica mining soil. All the wasteland soils being poor in available plant nutrients, very low microbial population and high pH caused adverse effect on the growth and bio-crude content however; G. claroideum improved the biomass and bio-crude content in C. procera in all the wasteland soils. The maximum improvement was recorded in calcareous soil and minimum in alkaline soil.