Nanobiotechnology can boost crop production and quality: first evidence from increased plant biomass, fruit yield and phytomedicine content in bitter melon (Momordica charantia)

Table 1 Statistical data on phenotypic variation in seven plant characters and content of five phytomedicines

Variables	Range	Grand mean	F-Value^a	P-value^b
Fruit length (cm)	4.51-5.98	5.097	11.938**	0.0006
Fruit diameter (cm)	2.64-3.12	2.890	2.449	0.1069
Fruit weight (g)	7.50-13.78	9.866	65.197**	<0.0001
Fruit number	12.00-23.00	17.283	3.594*	0.0404
Fruit yield (g)	91.84-244.49	171.855	54.743**	<0.0001
Biomass yield (Kg)	0.03-0.06	0.043	28.753**	<0.0001
Plant water content (Kg)	0.21-0.29	0.239	9.380**	0.0016
Cucurbitacin-B content (mg/g)	0.10-0.37	0.203	7.148**	0.0043
Lycopene content (mg/g)	0.01-0.02	0.012	4.908*	0.0158
β-Carotene content (mg/g)	0.90-1.65	1.293	1.068	0.4326
Charantin content (mg/g)	5.01-8.29	6.513	3.647*	0.0388
Insulin content (mg/g)	0.19-0.52	0.308	3.404*	0.0469

^acalculated with n₁ = 5 for treatment d.f. and n₂ = 10 for error d.f.^bconverted for one-tail value from F-value * and ** denotes significant at 1% and 5% level, respectively.

ISSN: 1472-6750