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Dec 31, 2025Keywords:
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Main Article Content
Effect of Senna alata, Moringa oleifera, and Azadirachta indica Leaf Extract Treatment on the Growth of Eggplant (Solanum elongena L.)
Abstract
Eggplant is an important and most profitable crop grown for its high nutritional and economic values, medicinal and traditional usages, making it one of the crops in high demand all year round in Nigeria. Nutrient elements have been established to be important in eggplant cultivation. Both ethanol and water leaf extracts of Senna alata, Moringa oleifera, and Azadirachta indica significantly enhanced the growth of eggplant when compared with the control experiment with either ethanol or water alone, indicating the presence of growthpromoting compounds in the extracts. The aqueous and ethanol extracts of the plant materials increased the girth, number of leaves, and height of eggplant at all levels of concentration, with ethanol extracts and 50% concentration recording the highest growth parameters. The ethanol and water extracts of A. indica recorded the highest eggplant girth of 1.86 cm and 1.76 cm, respectively, followed by the ethanol extract of M. oleifera (1.64 cm) and the ethanol extract of S. alata (1.62cm). Average number of leaves on eggplants treated with extracts of the plant materials was highest with ethanol extract of A. indica (32.4) followed by ethanol extract of M. oleifera (30.4) and ethanol extract of S. alata (27.4) which were significantly (p < 0.05) different with number of leaves recorded on eggplants treated with water extracts of respective plant materials; 25.8, 24.2, and 22.4 respectively. The mean plant height of eggplants was highest on plants treated with ethanol and water extracts of S. alata (56.8 cm and 50cm), followed by ethanol and water extracts of M. oleifera (45.2 cm and 42.4 cm), and ethanol and water extracts of A. indica (36.6 cm and 28.4 cm), respectively. The significant increase in growth parameters of treated eggplant could be due to a wide range of bioactive compounds contained in the extracts of the plant materials which contain growth promoting properties, making leaf extracts of S. alata, M. oleifera and A. indica a promising biostimulant agent that enhanced cell elongation and expansion of leaves, leading to increase in plant height and stem girth which could be exploited by resource poor farmers and increase food production.
