Asian Journal of Research and Review in Agriculture

Coffee senna, Cassia occidentalis Linn. is a perennial plant with important medicinal values. It grows throughout the tropics and subtropics and widely consumed by animals and human and used in several traditional medicines to cure many diseases. This research has been conducted to study the effect of two chemical mutagens on vegetative and flowering growth. To achieve this aim, seeds of Cassia occidentalis were soaked in boiled water for 18 h, where the temperature decreased gradually to room temperature. Then the seeds were soaked in ethyl methane sulphonate (EMS) at 0, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, and 5000 ppm and dimethyl sulphate (DMS) at 200, 400, 800, 1600 and 3200 ppm for 6 h where the control seeds remained in the water for the same period of soaking. Seeds were sown in 25cm plastic pots containing a soil mixture of clay and sand (1:1, v/v). Data was recorded on seed germination percentage, plant height, stem diameter, number of branches, number of leaves, fresh and dry weights of the plants. The statistical analysis revealed that significant effects have been observed on some growth characters.  Seeds treated with high concentrations of dimethyl sulphate (1600 and 3200 ppm) did not germinate. All the treatments used slightly decreased the pollen viability compared to the control and flowers of the all plants treated with 200 ppm DMS were fell before the maturity of the anther. Using dimethyl sulphate (DMS) at 200 and 400 ppm significantly decrease the number of inflorescences per plant compared to the control in both generations.