MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS FOR MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS OF SOLANUM NIGRUM

Abstract

Solanum nigrum (black nightshade, commonly known as makoi) is an excellent medicinal plant with antimicrobial, antioxidant, and remarkable anticancer properties. However, the optimum conditions for maximizing its growth potential for the extraction of medicinal products require a good understanding of its phenotypic plasticity and biomass under different environmental conditions. This study assessed the morphological and biomass traits of Solanum nigrum collected in triplicate across three discrete ecological sites at the University of Punjab, Lahore, computing fresh weight (FW), dry weight (DW), shoot height (SH), root length (RL), leaf area (LA), leaf length (LL), leaf width (LW), and moisture content (MC), were evaluated using the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), correlation, and multiple linear regression. ANOVA findings revealed the significant environmental variation for leaf area, fresh weight, and shoot height; in contrast, traits like leaf length and dry weight displayed enhanced stability across environments with magnificently minor coefficients of variation at 0.81 percent and 6.53 percent. Highly integrated development pathways were demonstrated by strong positive correlations between fresh and dry weight at 0.966 and between leaf length and width at 0.9628. Multiple linear regression analysis confirmed all the traits as significant indicators of biomass, with leaf width having the strongest effect (34.201). Overall, Solanum nigrum displays strong environmental adaptability, and traits like leaf width play a crucial role in improving the biomass.