Effect of GA3 and Shading on the Growth and Content of Artemisinin Compound in Leaf of Artemisia (Artemisia annua L.) Grown on the Medium Land of Karanganyar, Indonesia

Abstract

Malaria is still becomes a concern for the government of Indonesia, since this disease has affected many people. Artemisia annua L. is an aromatic plant that destroys malarial parasites, lowers fever and of which the secondary metabolite is artemisinin. Enhanced production of the artemisinin content in the whole plant is desirable. This experiment was conducted in Karanganyar, Indonesia 900m asl. The purpose of this field experiment was to investigate the effects of GA3 and shading on the growth and content of artemisinin of Artemisia. Experiment using Completely Randomized Block Design (CRBD) arranged in factorial treatments. The first factor was the concentration of GA3 consists of 4 levels, namely: G0 (without GA3), G1 (50 ppm GA3), G2 (100 ppm GA3) and G3 (150 ppm GA3). The second factor was the level of shade, which consists of three levels, namely: N0 (without shade), N1 (55% shade) and N2 (75% shade). The results showed that: 100 ppm GA3 increased plant dry weight, chlorophyll content and yield of total extract. A treatment without shade gives the best results on the height of plant, length of root, fresh weight of plant, dry weight of plant and yield of total extract. Treatment of 150 ppm of GA3 and 75% shade gave the highest content of artemisinin (3.96%) while control provided 0.64%.