Isolation and identification of AMF species from selected medicinal plants from BHU Campus

The objective of this study was to investigate Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) associations in selected medicinal plants. In this study 15 commonly used medicinal plants viz., Abutilon indicum (L.) Sweet, Centella asiatica (L.) Urb, Piper longum(L.), Terminalia bellerica (Gaertner) Roxb, Tinospora cordifolia (Wild.) Miers, Withania somnifera, Azadirachta indica A. Juss., Asparagus racemosus Willd., Andrographis paniculata (Burm. Fil.) Nees, Ocimum sanctum L. Eclipta alba, Mentha arvensis, Elettaria cardamomum, Bacopa monnieri and Mimosa pudica were investigated for AMF colonization in the form of arbuscules, vesicles and hyphae from their roots and rhizosphere soil. The rhizosphere soil and root of the commonly used medicinal plants were procured from Banaras Hindu University (BHU). From the study it was clear that AMF spores are abundantly available in the rhizosphere of the plants chosen for this study with spores of Acaulosporaceae and Glomeraceae family being dominant and Funneliformis mossae having the highest relative abundance and isolation frequency among all the AMF species.