Diversity of Arbuscular Mycorrhiza (AM) in medicinal plants of Ri-Bhoi District, Meghalaya
*1Nilufa Afruza and 2Dhritiman Chanda
Department of Botany, University of Science and Technology Meghalaya 793 101 India 2Department of Botany, University of Science and Technology Meghalaya 793 101 India *1Mrs. Nilufa Afruza Corresponding author Corresponding author email: afruznilufa@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Medicinal plants traditionally occupied an important position in rural and tribal lives of India. Increase in population and extensive need of medicine has created inadequate supply of drugs and human resistance to the currently used drugs for infectious diseases have focused on the use of plant material as a source of medicine for wide range of human ailments. Therefore attempts are made to explore and to develop cultivation technologies for large scale plantation. Inoculation of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal AM fungi during an early stage of plant growth has become an alternative strategy for improved plant survival and growth. AM association have been reported to have function in improving the growth of medicinal plants and productivity of medicinal plants and medicinal compound. Meghalaya is home to very rich floral diversity because of its favourable climatic condition, leading the availability of a wide range of medicinal and aromatic plants. So our study emphasizes the use of native AM fungal strain for the conservation of rare endangered medicinal plants of Meghalaya. We have studied the mycorrhizal diversity and its association on six selected medicinal plants Alternanthera brasiliana, Ageratum conyzoides, Zingiber montanum, Curcuma zedoaria, Ricinus communis and Crinum asiaticum.