Vol. 11, Issue 7 (2022)

Author(s):
M Mathivanan, K Sundaralingam, R Jerlin and L Nalina

Abstract:
Nightshade (Solanum Trilobatum L.) is one of the most important and underutilized medicinal plants. The plant grows majorly in all parts of South India. It has a significant number of medicinal properties which helps to cure terrible ailments. Based on its demand in pharmaceutical sector the plant needs to be cultivated, so the factors governing seed quality needs to be analysed. The study was designed to trace the pattern of seed development and maturation of crop for harvest. The sufficient number of fully opened flowers were tagged at each five days interval to identify the seed development pattern. At each five days interval the berry and seed characters such as fresh weight (g), dry weight (g), moisture content (%), seed recovery (%), 100 seed weight (g) were recorded. The results revealed that the berry and seed attained physiological maturity at 35 days after anthesis (DAA) resulted maximum accumulation of dry matter of both berry (0.84 g) and seed (0.14g) combined with minimum moisture content (49.16% for berry and 15.79% for seed). The berry colour changes from light green to mild red is the physiological maturity indices of nightshade. The fresh seeds were not germinated in any of the development stages.