Biomass yield, nutrient uptake and chemical constituents of withania somnifera (l.) dunal and adhatoda vasica nees medicinal valued species influenced by microbial inoculation

AMF, PSB and Azotobacter microbial consortia inoculated singly and in-combinations in Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal and Adhatoda vasica Nees. The combined AMF+PSB found best in W. somnifera increase yield by 1.56 folds compared to uninoculated plants while in A. vasica tripartite inoculants AMF+PSB+Azotobacter rendered more than 2.0 folds higher yield. Treatment responsiveness observed highest in AMF+PSB (T4)> AMF+Azotobacter (T5)> Tripartite inoculants (T7)> PSB (T2)> PSB+Azotobacter (T6)>AMF (T1)> Azotobacter (T3) in W. somnifera. In contrary, the responsiveness of treatment in A. vasica was highest with tripartite inoculants (T7)> PSB+ Azotobacter (T6) > AMF+ Azotobacter (T5)> AMF+PSB (T4)> single inoculants. Single strain microbial exhibited no response in A. vasica when compared to control plant at P<0.05. Nutrient uptake in plant also improved significantly at p>0.05 due to microbial inoculations in both the test species however P uptake was more than N and K uptake. Overall, N and P uptake enhanced between 15.71-33.80% and 52.14-64.28% respectively in W. somnifera and 2.63-50% and 60.83-133.33% in A. vasica due to inoculations compared to control plants. The protein, carbohydrate and polyphenol content also augmented upto 36.20%, 89.53% and 266.23% respectively in W. somnifera under AMF+PSB and 50.0%, 95.61% and 29.60% respectively in A. vasica with tripartite microbial inoculation.