The Indian bdellium [Commiphora wightii (Arnott.)
Bhand.] is a well-known medicinal plant of Burseraceae
family. It is an important oleo-gum producing plant. The plant
possess oleo-gum producing ducts, tapping of which
produces a pale yellow, aromatic fluid known as guggal
gum used in allopathic, ayurvedic and unani systems of
medicine owing to its anti inflammatory, anti-rheumatic,
hypocholesteremic, hypolipidemic and anti-fertility activity.
The plant is reported to be an important component of flora
of the tropical arid ecosystem (Kumar and Shankar, 1982).
Forests are the main source for collection of guggal gum.
However, with rising pressure on natural resources, forests
are shrinking rapidly. Due to the high demand for guggal in
medicine, not only the pharma industries but others too have
done destructive harvesting, using faulty methods of gum
tapping. This has led to decimation of the plants compounded
by inadequate replenishment. This species is now listed under
category ‘A’ of endangered plants (Tajuddin et al, 1997).
Guggal can be propagated by seeds and through vegetative
means. Seeds show poor germination besides needing
scarification. As considerable variability occurs in seedling
populations, vegetative propagation is required to produce

Short communication

J. Hortl. Sci.
Vol. 7(2):211-213, 2012

Effect of auxins on shoot and root growth in an endangered medicinal plant guggal
[Commiphora wightii (Arnott.) Bhand.]

Bhavya Bandi, B.R. Parmar, S.B. Parmar and Kruti Parmar
Department of Horticulture, N.M. College of Agriculture

Navsari Agricultural University
Navsari, Gujarat - 396 450, India

E-mail: parmarballu@yahoo.co.in

ABSTRACT

An investigation was carried out to study the effect of IBA and NAA on vegetative propagation of guggal [Commiphora
wightii (Arnott.) Bhand.] through cuttings, at Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari. The experiment consists of
ten treatments: IBA, NAA and their combination, each at 2000, 4000 and 6000 mg l-1 along with control, replicated
thrice. Ten cuttings per each treatment and per replication were planted. Planting media used were: sand, soil and
vermicompost, in 2:1:1 ratio. Cuttings were dipped for five minutes in solutions of IBA, NAA and their combinations.
Cuttings treated with 4000 mg l-1 IBA proved to be the best for shoot and root responses, viz., days taken to first
sprouting (11.67 days), number of shoots per cutting (10.27), number of leaves in the longest shoot (44.07), length of
longest shoot (51.69cm), diameter of the longest shoot (4.40mm), rooting percentage (61.19), number of primary
roots per cutting (15.01), length of the longest primary root (26.36cm), and number of secondary roots (22.37) and
length of the longest secondary root (21.40cm) per cutting. It was concluded that IBA @ 4000 mg l-1 was most effective
for obtaining maximum shoot and root growth.

Key words: Guggal, propagation, IBA, NAA

true-to-type progenies. Commiphora wightii is known to
be propagated through stem cuttings (Mertia and Nagrajan,
2000; Singh et al, 2009; Kumar et al, 2006). It being an
arid region plant, the present investigation on guggal was
designed to evaluate influence of the auxins IBA and NAA
on regeneration of cuttings under South Gujarat conditions.

The trial was carried out at Department of Horticulture,
N.M. College of Agriculture, Navsari Agricultural University,
Navsari. Hardwood cuttings of guggal 20 cm in length with
4-5 buds were used. A slant cut was made at the base of
the cuttings which were then treated with various
concentrations of IBA, NAA (2000, 4000 and 6000 mg l-1)
and their combinations, at the same levels of concentration.
Cuttings in the control group were treated with distilled
water. All the cuttings were dipped in respective
concentrations of solutions for 5 minutes. Ten cuttings were
planted per treatment in black polythene bags containing
sand, soil and vermicompost in 2:1:1 ratio. The experiment
was laid out in CRD, with 3 replications. Data on root and
shoot growth were recorded at 120 days after planting.
Results were analyzed statistically.



212

Shoot traits

Auxin tested in the experiment had significant
influence on various shoot characters, compared to the
control. IBA @ 4000 mg l-l was the best and recorded
minimum number of days to first sprout (11.67 days), highest
number of shoots per cutting (10.27), higher number of
leaves in the longest shoot (44.07), longest shoot (51.69cm)
and highest diameter in the longest shoot (4.40mm) (Table
1). Early sprouting, increase in number of shoots and shoot
length may be due to utilization of the stored carbohydrates
perhaps due to influence of the auxin through cell division
and elongation. At higher concentration (6000 mg l-l), growth
of shoot decreased. This could due to the inhibitory/toxic
effect, supported by Singh et al (2009) in guggal, Parmar
et al (2010) in bougainvillea, and Singh and Singh (2005) in
poinsettia.

Root traits

Different root promoting substances, i.e. IBA, NAA
(auxins) and their combinations were significantly superior
over the control in improving the root parameters studied.
IBA @ 4000 mg l-l significantly increased rooting percentage
(61.19) and other root traits like, number of primary roots
per cutting (15.01), length of the longest primary root (26.36
cm), number of secondary roots (22.37) and length of the
longest secondary root (21.40cm) per cutting, over other
treatments (Table 2). Lowest values for all the characters
were seen in control. Better rooting and root growth with
the auxins might be ascribed to greater metabolic activity
and utilization of sugars and starch upon hydrolysis in the
stem. IBA was found to be superior to NAA, or
combinations thereof,  because of its greater chemical
stability, slow mobility in plants and slow destruction by auxin-

Table 1. Effect of PGRs on shoot growth parameters in guggal cuttings

PGR concentration (mg l-l) Number of Number of Number of leaves Length of Diameter of
days taken shoots per in longest longest shoot longest shoot
to sprout cutting shoot (cm) (mm)

T
1 
(IBA  2000) 13.00 3.97 30.07 33.28 3.03

T
2 
(IBA  4000) 11.67 10.27 44.07 51.69 4.40

T
3
 (IBA  6000) 12.33 5.83 33.07 36.76 3.56

T
4 
(NAA 2000) 15.33 6.33 41.37 34.76 3.20

T
5 
(NAA 4000) 13.67 6.23 31.03 36.83 3.73

T
6 
(NAA 6000) 15.67 4.80 33.63 35.73 3.34

T
7
 (IBA 2000 + NAA 2000) 14.00 6.90 38.40 33.95 3.91

T
8
 (IBA 4000 + NAA 4000) 19.33 5.03 30.57 32.06 3.15

T
9
 (IBA 6000 + NAA 6000) 21.33 4.10 26.57 28.66 2.99

T
10

 Control 26.33 3.00 19.42 25.97 2.41
S.Em.± 0.67 0.22 1.35 1.33 0.13
C.D. (P=0.05) 1.99 0.65 3.98 3.93 0.39
C.V. (%) 7.19 6.72 7.12 6.61 6.78

Table 2. Effect of PGRs on root parameters in guggal cuttings

PGR concentration (mg l-l) Rooting % Number of primary Length of  longest Number of secondary Length of longest
roots per cutting  primary root (cm) roots per cutting secondary root (cm)

T
1
 (IBA 2000) 57.37 10.85 21.83 19.37 14.53

T
2
 (IBA 4000) 61.19 15.01 26.36 22.37 21.40

T
3
 (IBA 6000) 51.18 9.91 19.37 12.24 13.63

T
4
 (NAA 2000) 47.53 8.76 21.07 15.47 17.53

T
5
 (NAA 4000) 53.51 11.82 22.97 20.02 14.84

T
6
 (NAA 6000) 48.43 6.94 17.27 17.27 14.07

T
7 
(IBA 2000 +  NAA 2000) 50.40 12.89 23.97 20.57 19.23

T
8 
(IBA 4000 + NAA 4000) 34.35 9.19 16.63 14.05 11.66

T
9
 (IBA 6000 + NAA 6000) 31.29 6.41 15.73 15.73 9.23

T
10

 Control 18.45 3.24 10.40 10.40 7.13
S.Em.± 1.67 0.36 0.72 0.63 0.55
C.D. (P=0.05) 4.92 1.06 2.13 1.86 1.63
C.V. (%) 6.37 6.54 6.39 6.51 6.68

J. Hortl. Sci.
Vol. 7(2):211-213, 2012

Bhavya Bandi et al



213

(MS Received 19 September 2011, Revised 14 August 2012)

degrading enzymes. NAA may have been destroyed more
rapidly by the auxin-degrading enzymes. Strong influence
of IBA on rooting and root growth has been experimentally
substantiated earlier by various workers, viz., Singh et al
(2003 and 2009) and Kumar et al (2006) in guggal; Singh
and Singh (2005) in poinsettia and Parmar et al (2010) in
bougainvillea.

CONCLUSION

It may be concluded that among all the treatments
used in our study, IBA @ 4000 mg l-1 was the most effective
for achieving maximal shoot and root growth in guggal.

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Auxins in guggal propagation

J. Hortl. Sci.
Vol. 7(2):211-213, 2012