Medicinal Plants - International Journal of Phytomedicines and Related Industries

Swertia chirayita is highly prized critically endangered medicinal plant of temperate Himalayas belonging to family Gentianaceae. Because of high demand in international and national market, crude drug supplies still collected from the wild sources and negligible efforts have been done in developing proper agro techniques. An attempt have been made to enhance growth and yield of the plant under different decapitation and spacing experiments. The results of the present investigation indicates that decapitation of Swertia chirayita greatly influence the growth and yield parameters. Decapitation of plants at 60 cm height resulted in maximum fresh aerial biomass/plant (65.34 g), dry aerial biomass/plant (23.16 g), fresh root biomass/plant (5.53 g), dry root biomass/plant (1.76 g), whole plant fresh biomass/plant (70.87 g) and whole plant dry biomass/plant (24.92 g). Among all the spacings, whole plant fresh biomass per plant (56.77g) and whole plant dry biomass per plant (19.98g) was recorded maximum under medium spacing of 30 x 45 cm.