Remarks on “Tinospora cordifolia: One plant, many roles”
Sir, We read an article entitled “Tinospora cordifolia: One plant, many roles,” with great interest and would like to place few remarks on this.[1] The article is aptly written, informative and seems to be a product of a sincere effort of the researcher. The authors have aimed at encompassing the genetic diversity of the plant and they were also able to present the scarcity of reports on conservation strategies, propagation of the germplasm, morphological and physiological characters, and other characteristics of the plant. Unfortunately however, nothing has been discussed much about genetic diversity with special reference to Tinospora. Authors could have compiled reported studies on male and female varieties of Tinospora.[2,3]
Phytomorphological Differences of Male and Female Plants of Guduchi (Tinospora cordifolia (Willd.) Miers ex Hk.f. &Thom.)
Physical forms are the first impression by which the individuals are differentiated from each other in any organism and when it is applied with plants, phytomorphology comes to existence. Amid the various species of plants, somatic and sexual variations have been in core to make separate recognition. Sexual characters come to pompous position in case of diocious plants and Guduchi is one of them. They exhibit differences with physical forms in case of all parts as in aerial and underground viz., stem, leaf, aerial and underground roots etc. Veination is looped in leaves of male plants while it being incomplete in leaves of female plants, which becomes the characters to identify them separatly e. g. terminal marginal veination is looped in male plant unlike the female leaves where it is incomplete.
Influence of Diluted Spent Wash of Sugar Industries Application on Yield of and Nutrient Uptake by Sugarcane and Changes in Soil Properties
A pot experiment was conducted to study the effect of irrigation with tube well water (S0) as well as with spent wash diluted for 25 (S25), 50 (S5O) and 100 (S100) times on yield of and nutrient uptake by sugarcane grown on Typic Chromustert. The results revealed that application of spent wash diluted at any level increased the sugarcane yield and nutrient uptake significantly over S0. Less diluted spent wash gave higher yield of biomass than the concentrated one. Though, there was tendency for slight increase in the soil salinity due to use of spent wash, yet the nutrient availability of P, K and S increased considerably. Further, there was indication of betterment in some physical conditions of soil.