Karnataka J. Agric. Sci.

, 20 (1), (110-112), 2008

Effect of Homobrassinolide on Growth, Physiology and Biochemical Aspects of Sesame

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) an important oilseed 28 homobrassinolide on the physiological, morphological,
crop in the tropics, gained momentum by virtue of its high quality growth and yield parameters of sesame. The field experiment
edible oil and adorned with the name ‘queen of oilseeds’. Sesame was carried out at the Department of Agricultural Botany, Faculty
oil occupies a premier place in Indian diet. There is a need to of Agriculture, Annamalai University, Tamilnadu during 2006, to
increase the productive potential of sesame and thereby oilseed study the effect of 28 homobrassinolide on morphological,
by using growth stimulants. Cytokinins and homobrassinolide physiological, biochemical and yield parameters of sesame. 28
are well known plant growth stimulants having a unique growth homobrassinolide of Sigma – Aldrich, Bangalore was used. The
promoting activity. Application of this change several experimental plots were executed with 4m x 4m and the seeds
physiological processes at cell level and plants as whole were line sowed and maintained with a spacing of 30 cm between
(Mandava et al. 1981; Cutler et al. 1991). Homobrassinolides rows and within a row. The crop was thinned after one week.
are also associated with increased metabolic processes like Normal agronomic package of practices were followed. The
photosynthesis (Sairam, 1994) and protein synthesis (Kalinch experiments were carried out in randomized block design with
et al., 1985). Brassinosteriods are polyhydroxy steroids and 28 five replications. From each treatment, 10 plants were selected
homobrassinolide (HBR) is one of the bioactive and observations were recorded. The plants were sprayed with
brassinosteriods being widely used in physiological studies. 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 ppm of 28 homobrassinolide at vegetative,
Brassinosteriods are considered as plant hormone with flowering and capsule formation stages (30, 45 and 60 DAS)
pleiotropic effects as they influence on developmental processes following the schedule of treatments as mentioned below.
such as growth, seed germination, rhizogenesis, flowering, T1 – Control
senescence, abscission and maturation (Sasse, 1999).
T2 – Water spray
Eventhough the effect of different PGR’s in sesame have been
reported, work on the effect of HBR in sesame is meager. Hence, T3 – HBR @ 0.25 ppm at 45+60 DAS
the present investigation was carried out to study the effect of T4 – HBR @ 0.50 ppm at 45+60 DAS
Table-1. Effect of 28-homobrassinolide on morphological and growth parameters of sesame at different days spraying.
Treatment Plant Number of Number of Leaf Specific Dry matter Crop Net Relative
height branches leaves area index leaf production growth rate assimilation growth
(cm) weight (g. plant-1) (g. m-2.day-1) rate rate
(mg cm-2) (mg.cm-2.day-1)(g. g-1.day-1)
30 DAS
T1 46.5 2.1 39.5 1.068 1.065 1.69 7.16 0.415 0.427
T2 48.5 2.3 46.0 1.075 1.114 1.73 7.54 0.524 0.431
T6 52.4 3.1 52.5 1.114 1.325 2.21 9.02 0.593 0.521
T7 58.0 3.6 57.0 1.228 1.376 2.56 9.68 0.673 0.556
T8 61.2 3.9 63.0 1.231 1.418 3.01 9.92 0.691 0.612
CD(0.05) 7.01 0.23 4.1 0.003 0.017 0.66 0.012 0.014 0.005
45 DAS
T1 65.51 3.8 43.52 1.268 3.215 2.03 8.64 0.521 0.523
T2 68.15 3.9 46.31 1.287 3.656 2.46 8.71 0.613 0.613
T3 73.50 4.2 51.23 1.324 4.869 3.25 8.96 0.663 0.641
T4 78.26 5.1 56.32 1.342 5.213 3.56 9.03 0.699 0.651
T5 84.30 6.0 76.24 1.466 6.785 4.56 9.65 0.725 0.662
T6 80.10 5.6 65.37 1.395 6.654 4.52 9.53 0.710 0.646
T7 88.20 6.2 79.25 1.478 7.012 4.66 9.78 0.756 0.712
T8 90.10 6.5 81.21 1.496 7.123 4.72 10.01 0.781 0.723
CD(0.05) 4.88 0.76 10.2 0.015 0.036 1.80 0.126 0.017 0.012
60 DAS
T1 71.22 5.2 52.36 1.324 6.34 19.23 9.96 0.689 0.576
T2 72.56 5.3 55.62 1.339 6.39 19.65 10.00 0.692 0.584
T3 80.23 5.9 63.52 1.425 6.42 23.63 10.25 0.712 0.604
T4 83.26 6.3 67.56 1.434 6.98 23.65 10.54 0.735 0.608
T5 88.12 7.2 85.21 1.512 7.68 26.56 10.95 0.825 0.611
T6 84.56 6.7 71.65 1.496 7.12 25.56 10.82 0.823 0.609
T7 92.12 7.9 86.23 1.523 7.88 28.69 11.02 0.836 0.621
T8 95.20 8.5 87.56 1.532 7.93 29.67 11.11 0.845 0.629
CD(0.05) 6.12 1.17 13.2 0.018 0.042 2.63 0.143 0.021 0.008

110
Karnataka J. Agric. Sci., 20 (1) : 2008

T5 – HBR @ 1.0 ppm at 45+60 DAS Yoshida et al. (1971) and Somogyi (1952) and soluble protein
T6 – HBR @ 0.25 ppm at 30+45+60 DAS by Lowry et al. (1951). The catalase and peroxidase activity
were analysed by the methods of Sadasivam and Manickam
T7 – HBR @ 0.5 ppm at 30+45+60 DAS
(1996).
T8 – HBR @ 1.0 ppm at 30+45+60 DAS
The morphological parameters like plant height,
Sampling for biochemical analysis and growth number of leaves, number of branches and LAI (Table. 1)
parameters were recorded one week after the spray. All the yield increased with increasing number of sprays and dosage of spray
parameters were recorded at the time of harvest. The growth as compared to control and water spray. Similar result was
parameters like leaf area index was calculated by the formula of reported by Ramraj et al. (1997). Increased LAI might be due to
Williams (1946), specific leaf weight by Pearce et al. (1968), crop activities of meristamatic tissues of plant, increasing number
growth rate by Watson (1958) and net assimilation rate by and size of cell, which ultimately increased photosynthetic
Williams (1946). The biochemical parameters viz., chlorophyll surface area. Similarly specific leaf weight, net assimilation rate
and sugar content were estimated following the procedures of and relative growth rate were found maximum with application
Table-2. Effect of 28-homobrassinolide on biochemical parameters of sesame at different days of spraying.
Treatment Chlorophyll Soluble protein Reducing sugar Non reducing Catalase Peroxidase
content (mg.g-1) (mg.g-1) (mg.g-1) sugar (mg.g-1) (Units/g tissue) (Units/l)
30 DAS
T1 0.278 7.26 4.561 3.258 2.054 2.10
T2 0.369 7.45 4.815 3.489 2.114 2.13
T6 0.456 9.01 5.468 3.924 2.226 2.19
T7 0.532 9.45 5.692 4.103 2.389 2.23
T8 0.596 9.81 5.918 4.115 2.448 2.26
CD(0.05) 0.012 0.14 0.07 0.17 0.007 0.012
45 DAS
T1 0.562 9.23 5.215 4.568 2.213 2.63
T2 0.623 9.43 5.326 4.572 2.324 2.75
T3 0.659 10.45 5.678 4.654 2.365 2.86
T4 0.692 10.98 5.926 4.785 2.412 2.94
T5 0.723 11.56 6.012 4.956 2.654 3.01
T6 0.712 11.35 6.001 4.856 2.623 2.98
T7 0.793 11.79 6.248 5.012 2.784 3.12
T8 0.892 11.98 6.456 5.124 2.895 3.24
CD(0.05) 0.022 0.27 0.15 0.16 0.167 0.17
60 DAS
T1 1.015 9.65 7.891 6.532 3.121 2.91
T2 1.132 9.78 7.956 6.756 3.211 3.11
T3 1.235 10.12 8.214 7.254 3.356 3.26
T4 1.325 10.25 8.458 7.768 3.506 3.35
T5 1.465 10.91 9.135 8.245 3.789 3.75
T6 1.442 10.89 8.968 8.212 3.621 3.70
T7 1.482 10.96 9.217 9.012 3.807 3.78
T8 1.496 11.01 9.269 9.124 3.885 3.94
CD(0.05) 0.032 0.45 0.22 0.36 0.225 0.23

Table 3. Effect of 28 homobrassinolide on yield parameters of sesame

Treatment Number of Number of Capsule 1000 Yield Harvest Oil
capsules seeds per weight seed per Index content
per plant capsule (g.cap-1) weight(g) plant(g) (%)
T1 40 30.5 0.43 2.01 2.45 19.27 49.65
T2 46 31.5 0.47 2.03 2.99 21.56 50.49
T3 62 33.8 0.49 2.04 3.50 23.54 50.69
T4 71 36.1 0.50 2.08 3.79 24.78 51.26
T5 89 40.0 0.53 2.10 4.59 34.26 52.65
T6 85 38.6 0.50 2.12 4.43 33.56 51.98
T7 92 40.2 0.63 2.14 4.77 35.21 52.77
T8 98 40.7 0.67 2.17 5.24 36.58 52.86
CD (0.05) 12.63 3.62 0.18 0.11 1.26 4.53 0.51
111
Effect of Media on the Growth.........
of 1.0 ppm of homobrassinolide thrice (Prakash et al., 2003). The
crop growth rate was maximum in the plants treated with 1.0
ppm of 28- homobrassinolide at 30, 45 and 60 DAS. The dry
matter production increased at a faster rate in the twice and
thrice treated plants with 1.0 ppm of homobrassinolide. This
might be attributed to the improvement in plant growth, dry
matter and leaf area due to HBR spray. Similarly RGR and NAR
also increased with the application of 1.0 ppm homobrassinolide
thrice. The effect of HBR on biochemical parameters like total
chlorophyll content was found to be maximum in plants treated
with 1.0 ppm of HBR (Table. 2). Increased chlorophyll content
with the plant growth regulators has been reported by many
workers. The total sugar content was maximum in the plants
treated with 1.0 ppm homobrassinolide thrice followed by 0.5
ppm HBR thrice treated plants. Soluble protein content in sesame
was found to be enhanced by three times application of
homobrassinolide 1.0 ppm. Brassinosteriods were found to
enhance the level of nucleic acid, soluble protein and
carbohydrates (Vardhini and Rao, 1998). The catalase activity
(3.885 units/tissue sample) and peroxidase (3.94 units/l) were
observed maximum in the plants sprayed thrice (60 DAS) with
Department of Agricultural Botany
Annamalai University
Annamalai Nagar (Tamilnadu)- 608 002, India
(Received: August, 2007)
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1.0 ppm HBR. The application of 1.0 ppm of HBR at 30, 45 and 60
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in morphological, physiological and biochemical parameters.
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