Studies on effects of sodium fluoride on seed germination and plant growth of Rauvolfia Tetraphylla L. a medicinally important plant

Plants are an indispensable source of various needs of human beings such as food, construction tools, flavoring agents, and medicine. Rauvolfia tetraphylla L. is endangered and is one of the important plants of Apocynaceae family being cultivated for its immense medicinal properties. The present studies on Fluoride contamination in water, soil and plants is a serious health problem throughout the world. We studied the effect of aqueous solutions of 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 mM Sodium fluoride on seed germination and seedling growth of R. tetraphylla at the end of Two months of treatment. Significant reduction in root length, shoot length, Leaf legnth, fresh weight, % of germination were observed at increasing fluoride concentration. Decreasing trend in the growth of roots were observed with increasing Sodium Fluoride concentrations. The percentage of seedling growth decreased up to 62 percent with increasing Sodium fluoride treatment At 0.02 M Sodium Fluoride, significantly reduced growth in the root and shoot lengths occurred in all the seedlings, except the root lengths. In general, the shoot growth was more affected than the root growth at higher concentrations of Sodium Fluoride. The plants growth in soil supplemented with 400 mg NaF/kg soil shows maximum reduction in their growth parameters as compared to control plants.