Variation in Morphological Characteristics and Andrographolide Content in Andrographis paniculata (Burm.f.) Nees of Central India

Andrographis paniculata (king of bitters), commonly known as kalmegh is used both in ayurvedicand unani system of medicines for a number of ailments related to digestion, hepatoprotection, hypoglycemicand as anti-bacterial, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, vermicidal and antipyretic. a. paniculata collected from fivelocations of madhya pradesh and chhattisgarh were studies for their morphological characteristics andditerpene contents to find out superior genotype. the average amount of dry weight per individual wasbetween 16.58 to 18.92 g. the average andrographolide content varied from l.07 to 2.24 percent in dried leaves.the differences in growth characteristics among the plants collected from different locations were notsignificant. however andrographolide content among the plants from different locations were statisticallysignificant. the results indicated that those populations are potentially important sources for breeding,improvement of cultivars and best sources for obtaining higher drug yield.