Abstract

Phyllanthus niruri is widely used as traditional medicine especially in Indonesia. The need to produce a standardized herbal medicine raw material has urged a research to study the effect of shading, nitrogen (N) and magnesium (Mg) fertilizer dosage on phyllanthin and total flavonoid yield of P. niruri. Pot experiment was conducted by using Inceptisols soil from Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The study was carried out in a split plot design with three replications. The main plot was shaded with 3 levels (0, 60 and 95%). The subplots was urea and magnesium suphate (MgSO₄) fertilizer (proportion 5 : 1) with 5 levels (0, 1+0.2, 2+0.4, 3+0.6 and 4+0.8). The period of harvesting were 1, 2 and 3 months after planting. The results indicated that application of 3 g urea, 0.6 g MgSO₄ and 60% paranets shading could improve the plant growth, N-Mg uptake, total flavonoid and phyllanthin yield of P.niruri. Based on the regression curve, the optimum dosage that produced the highest totalflavonoid yield was 2.68 g of urea and 0.54 g of MgSO₄, while for obtaining the highestphyllanthin yield was 2.39 g of urea and 0.48 g of MgSO₄ per plant. N and Mg absorptionwere positively correlated with total flavonoid and phyllanthin yield. The best period of harvest to obtain the highest total flavonoid and phyllanthin yield was 3 months after planting(plant age ± 4 months).

Key words: Phyllanthus niruri, shading, nitrogen (N) and magnesium (Mg) fertilizer, phyllanthin, total flavonoid.