Data Collection
Physiological parameters
Total Chlorophyll For chlorophyll measurement, 3rd leaf was randomly collected from 7 month-old-plants. Fresh leaf samples of 0.5 g were drawn from each sample and homogenized in a mortar by pestle with 80% acetone. Supernatant was decanted off and filtered through a Buchner funnel using Whatman No. 1 filter paper. Sufficient quantity of 80% acetone was added with residue and the process was repeated until acetone become colourless. The volume was made to 100 ml with 80% acetone in a volumetric flask. Optical density of the sample was measured at 645 nm and 663 nm wavelength in Spectrophotometer (Model-Thermo spectronic uv-1, England). Amount of chlorophyll was cal-culated on a fresh weight basis employing the following formulae (Mahadevan and Sridhar 1982):