Mineral content of stevia rebaudiana bertoni under the effect of distillery spent wash

Distillery spent wash, is of dark brown colour with unpleasant odour. It is of biological origin but have high BOD and COD. It is rich inorganic carbon, K, Ca, Mg & S, considerable amount of N, P traces of micronutrient. Being plant origin, it is nontoxic, biodegradable and contains large quantities of soluble organic matter and plant nutrients but the high BOD and COD content cause problems. Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, a plant of Paraguay is a member of family Asteraceae. It is herbaceous, perennial herb growing in semi humid and sub tropical with temperature extreme of 21–42°C. Stevia plant is known for various medicinal properties like hypoglycemic, regulate heartbeat, tonic and others. It consist of Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn and Mo and also P, Na, K and a good amount of protein, fat and crude fibre. All plants have certain mineral requirements from soil for their proper growth. N, P and K are needed in large amount. Since spent wash also consist of good amounts of NPK, the present investigation deals with treatment of different concentration of spent wash in plant Stevia rebaudiana and observe the mineral content of plant under the effect.