Physiological and phytochemical characters of Eleutherine palmifolia affected by treatment of variation in light intensity and water capacity

Abstract

Abstract. Firdaus NM, Mudyantini W, Sugiarto. 2020. Physiological and phytochemical characters of Eleutherine palmifolia affected by treatment of variation in light intensity and water capacity. Cell Biol Dev 4: 26-39. Bawang dayak (Eleutherine palmifolia (L.) Merr.) is one of the tubers widely cultivated in Kalimantan with phytopharmacological potential, but its usage in traditional medicine is still limited. This study aims to ascertain the physiological and phytochemical characteristics of E. palmifolia following treatment with varying amounts of water and light intensity. The study used a completely randomized design (CRD) with two components: the treatment of light intensity 50% and 100% and water availability at 50%, 75%, and 100% concentrations, to create six treatment combinations. Flowering pace, leaf number, breadth, length, and blossom number were measured once every three days for one month. Wet weight, dry weight, stomata index, chlorophyll, carotene, vitamin C, flavonoids, and shoot ratio were assessed at harvest. The data were analyzed using ANOVA (Analysis of Variant). If there was a significant difference, a further test was carried out with the Duncan Multiple Range Test with a test level of 5%. The treatment effect on water availability of 75% and light intensity of 50% (K75I50) was significantly different and gave the highest value on leaf width of 0.28 cm, stomata index of 36.84 cm, carotenoid content of 39.70 g/ mL in E. palmifolia. The given treatments were not significantly different in the number of leaves, leaf length, the number of flowers, wet weight, dry weight, chlorophyll, vitamin C, flavonoids, and shoot ratio of Dayak roots. Water availability and 100% light intensity (K100I100) are the optimal treatments to accelerate the flowering of Dayak onion plants with a yield of 26.00 days.