Abstract
The trend in the practical uses of herbal medicine has gained increasing momentum in recent years. One of the trends includes the use of the andrographolide-containing Andrographis paniculata, which is a herb that is traditionally used as medicine. There are not many studies have investigated the cultivation of this plant. The aim of this study is to develop a standard of procedure for cultivating Andrographis paniculata using the fertigation technique. A total of 6 treatments in 2 growth medium compositions were studied; treatments T1, T3, and T5 in Cocopeat-RHA (70:30) and treatments T2, T4, and T6 in 100 % cocopeat. 3 magnesium compositions of 10 ppm (T1 and T2), 50 ppm (T3 and T4), and 70 ppm (T5 and T6) in nutrient solution were also studied. Treatments T1, T3, and T5 showed the potential for better growth quality with a maximum plant height of 32.51 cm, 32.51 cm, and 31.75 cm. The andrographolide content was comparable with controls 1 and 2 (0.67-0.70 µg/mL). In higher magnesium compositions of the nutrient solution, the dry herb yield of T5 and T6 decreased from 2.4 g to 1.6 g and 2.4 g to 1.2 g. The T3 and T5 treatments exhibited a higher yield than T4 and T6 based on a comparison of dry herb yield. The incorporated fertigation technique showed an on-par quantity of andrographolide yield to that of conventional techniques (0.67-0.70 µg/mL) although it showed an advantage of overcoming the cleanliness problem faced in this study. Hence, the T3 standard of procedure was deemed the best, as it gave better plant growth quality with a maximum plant height of 31.75 cm, a maximum number of leaves (141 total count), a good dry herb yield of 2.2 g, and better andrographolide content 0.7 µg/mL. The fertigation technique incorporated with the combined Cocopeat-RHA medium and 50 ppm magnesium composition in the nutrient solution is suggested for the cultivation of Andrographis paniculata.
