Sennoside content and yield attributes of Cassia angustifolia Vahl. as affected by NaCl and CaCl2

Pot culture experiments were conducted to assess the extent of growth, photosynthetic capacity, sennoside concentration and yield attributes of Senna plant under the individual as well as combined influence of NaCl and CaCl2. Six treatments, i.e. NaCl (80 and 160 mM), CaCl2 (5 and 10 mM) alone and a combination of NaCl + CaCl2 (80 + 10 and 160 + 10 mM) were given to the growing Senna plants at pre-flowering (45 DAS), flowering (75 DAS) and post-flowering (90 DAS) stages. Significant reductions were observed in pod biomass, leaf area, stomatal conductance, photosynthetic rate and sennoside concentration and yield, with each NaCl treatment. On the contrary, individual CaCl2 treatments had a favourable effect. Under the effect of combination treatments, although these parameters were reduced, the extent of reduction was much less than one caused by NaCl treatments. The combined treatments thus mitigated the adverse effects caused by NaCl.