Seed morphology and germination of pasak bumi ( Eurycoma longifolia)

Abstract

Eurycoma longifolia is a traditional medicine plant with numerous bioactive components. Because of its medicinal properties, particularly its aphrodisiac properties, pasak bumi has seen a tremendous increase in demand and is now threatened with extinction in the wild. As a result, species must be protected as soon as possible through propagation techniques. The research was conducted to determine the success of pasak bumi propagation using various media combinations. In this study, 360 pasak bumi seeds were sown in four different germination media: pure sand (M1), a 1:1 v/v soil and sand mixture (M2), a 1:1 v/v sand and rice husk mixture (M3), and a 1:1 v/v sand and compost mixture (M4). Seedlings were weaned at 8 weeks of age using three different media treatments: soil and carbonized rice husk 1:1 (M1), pure carbonized rice husk (M2), and a mixture of sand and soil 1:1 v/v (M3). To analyze the data, a non-factorial completely randomized design was used. The results showed that a combination of sand and soil media resulted in the highest average percentage of germination (34%). The variance results revealed that the planting medium had no significant effect on shoot growth but did affect the number and length of roots. The pure carbonized rice husk medium produces the best growth parameters.