This document summarizes a study on the effect of Naphthalene Acetic Acid (NAA) on the root growth of snake plants (Sansevieria trifasciata). Snake plants were treated with different concentrations of NAA (250 ppm, 500 ppm, 750 ppm) by dipping cuttings in solutions. Untreated cuttings served as the control. The cuttings were planted and data was collected on root initiation time, number of roots, root length, and survival rate. The data was statistically analyzed to determine the effect of NAA concentration on snake plant root growth.

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INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Mother-in-law’s tongue also known as snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata) is a flowering
species which is primarily grown for its slick, sword-like, long leaves. Sansevieria is a type of
plant that usually grows in West Africa and is a slow growing plant. It is one of the strongest
plants of all home plants which can withstand any condition of area from bright to dark. Though
over watering and no watering at all can kill the snake plant. Moreover, it is considered as
architectural plant with shift upright leaves, up to 3-4 feet tall (Vanzile, 2017).
Recent studies have shown that this magnificent plant is worth much more than just being
used as an ornament and can significantly benefit your health (Healthy Hubb, 2018). It is one of
the most recommended plants for improving air quality (Pinola, 2013). A Clean Air study
conducted by NASA showed that snake plants are one of the few plants that convert carbon
dioxide into oxygen at night (Healthy Hubb, 2018). Thus, a need for propagation of these plants
in efficient and economic ways should be taken into consideration in promoting less carbon
footprint in each household.
In micro propagation of various plants, Alpha-Naphthalene Acetic Acid (1-NAA) is one
of the typically added substances to a media containing nutrients essential for plants survival
(Benotti et al., 2003). (1-NAA) is a synthetic auxin and is routinely used for the vegetative
propagations of plants from stem and leaf cutting. It is usually used by some farmers and or
gardeners for their plants because naphthalene acetic acid is a rooting hormone use in plants. It
brings significant result in the development of root systems (pointed ends), develops straighter
and thicker roots International Journal of Agriculture and Crop Science (2014).

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Aside from root inducing ability, it can also be used for the control of pre-harvest fruit
drop, flower induction, fruit thinning in various crops such as apples, potatoes, olives and citrus
fruits, raises fruit setting ratio and upgrades flower sex ratio (International Journal of Agriculture
and Crop Science,(2014; TOKO-E, 2017).
Objectives of the Study
The primary objective of the study is to determine the effect of Naphthalene Acetic Acid
(NAA) on the Root Growth of Snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata).
Specifically, the objectives of the study are to:
1. Determine the percent (%) increase in number of roots per cutting of NAA-treated
Sansivieria plants compared to untreated plants.
2. Determine the average percent (%) length increase of root of NAA-treated Sansivieria
plants compared to untreated plants.
3. Determine the percent (%) survival of of NAA-treated Sansivieria plants compared to
untreated plants.
Significance of the Study
This study is important because it gives wisdom about the use of naphthalene acetic acid
for the rooting growth of plants. Also, it tackles about how people can suitably use the NAA,
especially for the farmers and gardeners that are difficult for growing a plants. Also, this would
help students to become knowledgeable about the effect of naphthalene acetic acid for the root
growth of plants. In addition, it would be helpful for the researcher because the subject matter
and ideas on effect of naphthalene acetic acid could become suggestions in other paper works.

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Scope and Limitation of the Study
This study will observe the effect of Naphthalene Acetic Acid (NAA) in the root growth
of snake plant in College of Arts and Sciences, Central Luzon State University (CLSU). The
study will be conducted from March to May 2018.

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REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 History of Snake Plant (Sanseviera trifasciata)
Daniels (2017) states that, Sansevieria (Snake Plant) is a forbearing plant that is being
ignored generally, Sansevieria can survive in drought, and is low level of light. Snake plant
cleans the air at home. Snake Plant was named for Raimondo di Sangro (Prince of Sansevero). It
is common name gather from the pattern on the leaves that has many stripes. Sansevieria grow
anywhere with 8 inches to 12 feet high. Snake plant possesses a sword like leaves approximately
2 feet long.
OurHousePlants (2018) states that, snake plant is known as a truly remarkable and easy
striking care house plant. It belongs to the family Asparagaceae native to the West Africa tropics.
2.1.2 About
Snake plant (sansevieria) has 70 different species, to Africa native, Madagascar, Southern
Asia. It is use to fabricate ropes and baskets. It is also called mother-in-law tongue because of its
sharply pointed leaves, (Daniels, 2017), Sanseviera trifasciata is a herbaceous, succulent,
perennial plant, growing to a height of 90 centimeters. Leaves form a basal rosette, and are flat,
thick, leathery, sword-shaped, and variegated with grayish white transverse markings flowers are
whitish green, up to 5 centimeters long, (Stuart, 2017). Snake plant can easily rot so make sure
the soil is well-drained and don’t water it too much (especially in winter). Allow the soil to dry
in between watering. As they originate from arid deserts, these plants do well in sandier soil.

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2.1.3 Nutrients and Taking Care
According to Daily 2018, Snake plants reduce bad things in air such as nitrogen oxides,
formal dehyde, and other toxins. When the container can’t stand upright it is the time to re-pot
the snake plant because the roots will no longer fit. Poor drainage on the container will cause
roots of the snake plant to rot. The sunlight must be direct into it, the more sunlight it receives it
will grow better. The water is stock or stores in its leaves, if it is given too much water it will
also rot. Avoid pouring water in the ring of leaves, the water must be poured in the soil near its
base.
A. Taxonomic Classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Asparagales
Family: Asparagaceae
Genus: Sansevieria
Species: Sansevieria trifasciata
Figure 1. Snake Plant (Sansevieria trifasciata), photo by plantladilyn (2011)

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2.2 Auxin
The early characterization of auxins as “root forming hormones of plants” established a
long-standing link between this class of small molecules and root development as cited by
Overvoorde, Fukaki and Beeckman (2010). According to Holganix Blog (2013) auxin is a
powerful growth hormone produced naturally by plants. They are found in shoot and root tips
and promote cell division, stem, and root growth. According to Cobb and Reade (2010) auxin, or
indol-3-yl-acetic acid (IAA), is an endogenous plant growth regulator that plays a crucial role in
the division, differentiation and elongation of plant cells. At the organ and whole plant level it
has a profound influence on many aspects of plant physiology, including seedling morphology,
geotropism, phototropism, apical dominance, leaf senescence and abscission, flowering, and fruit
setting and ripening. Young seedlings and tissues that are rapidly growing and elongating contain
relatively higher concentrations of auxin than mature tissues and it is believed that younger
tissues are the most sensitive to this growth regulator. As a critical plant hormone, auxin
modulates such diverse processes as tropic responses to light and gravity, general root and shoot
architecture, organ patterning, vascular development and growth in tissue culture as cited by
Woodward and Bartel, (2004).
Auxins are plant growth regulators that are used to induce root formation from
cuttings. Various auxins have been shown to improve overall rooting percentages, hasten root
initiation, increase the number and quality of roots (Blythe et al., 2007) and promote the
development of uniform roots (Boyer et al., 2013).
The main difficulty to conduct the experiment using plant growth regulator where there is
great number of species and cultivars of ornamental plants which differ in their reaction to the

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plant growth regulators. The synthesis of a plant hormone is often not localized in a specific
tissue, but may occur in many different tissues. Furthermore, plant hormones may be transported
and act in distant tissues, but often they have their action at the site of synthesis, (Akma, 2010).
Synthetic root promoting chemicals are used to promote root development in plant
propagation found most reliable stimulating adventitious root production in cutting inbutyric acid
and alpha naphatalene acetic acid (ANAA) although there are other chemicals that can be used.
Furthermore, auxin is a type of hormone that stimulates rooting there are auxin produced
naturally in plant but synthetic auxin like naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) are more effective in
stimulating roots, Oneza (2003).
According to Tran as cited by Luangna (2003) numerous studies have been conducted to
determine the effectiveness of exogenously applied growth regulators on the root initiation in
stem cuttings. Undoubtedly, adventitious root initiation is realty influenced by levels of growth
regulating substances.
2.3 Naphthalene Acetic Acid
According to Theint and Htwe (2012) naphthalene acetic acid is a rooting auxin
compound, it also use in hormones and promoting a callus growth. All rooting hormones contain
fungicide in plant propagation by cutting it is important that they have roots as quickly rise up.
Synthetic auxin, indole butyric acid and naphthalene acetic acid are both widely use in vegetative
propagation of plant from stem to leaf cutting. Naphthalene acetic acid is proven that this is the
most effective in plants propagation and it is also stable to use in planting than indole acetic acid,

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and Daniels (2017) states that it is also use to avoiding rootstalk sucker for about seven months it
is not only use in plant propagation but also an chemical use in plant to avoid some insects.
2.4 Uses of Naphthalene Acetic Acid
The stimulatory effects of NAA on rooting of plant stem cuttings have been reported by
many researchers, and promotion of adventitious root formation has been considered as one of
the characteristics of auxin (Yan et al., 2014). However, the responses to different types and
concentrations of auxins vary among plant species and are affected by genotype (Guo et al.,
2009).
There are also many deviations in the range of effectiveness of 1-naphthaleneacetic acid
(NAA) dosages on cuttings of different plant species,
According to Meyer and Anderson as cited by Oneza (2003), the most favorable
procedure in introducing hormone into cuttings is by immersing the basal end of the cuttings in a
dilute solution for a period ranging from 1 to 20 minutes before setting them into rooting
medium. Treating cuttings with auxin-type growth regulators such as alpha naphthalene acetic
acid (ANAA) increases the percentage of cuttings that form roots, hastens root formation and
increases uniformity of rooting. Earlier, according to Aguilar as cited by Oneza (2003) stated that
the best concentration that promotes early rooting of rose was 600 ppm of ANAA and (Hossain
and Urbi, 2016) past on the adventitious rooting in medicinal plants and woody plants were
mainly focused on Indole-3-butyric acid (IBA), while other auxins (i.e., Indole-3-acetic acid
(IAA) and NAA) received less consideration.

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2.5 Root Structure
One of the most critical components to understand surrounding the Sansevieria is the root
structure, the root structure dictates a great deal about basic care for most plants, sansevieria are
no exception. Snake Plant has very shallow rhisomes for roots. Typically grown in very deep,
24", tall grow pots, with heavy soil, however the roots of the plant itself only go down about
halfway or less into that deep pot. The pot is designed more as a counterweight than anything
else for sans of 10" diameter grows larger. Rhizomal roots spread outward; they do not grow
down deep, Dengarden (2016).

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METHODOLOGY
Collection and Preparation of Naphthalene Acetic Acid (NAA) and Snake
Plant
Snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata) and naphthalene acetic acid will be bought at
Science City of Muñoz public market. The snake plant cutting will be prepared by separating the
clusters of leaves. Afterwards, the cuttings of snake plant will be soaked in the 250 ppm (T1),
500 ppm (T2), and 750 ppm (T3) concentration of naphthalene acetic acid. The ANAA
concentration that will be utilized in this study will be prepared by mixing distilled water with
ANAA rooting hormone. The different concentrations are as follows: 25 ml ANAA + 75 ml
distilled water (T1), 50 ml ANAA + 50 ml distilled water (T2), and 75 ml ANAA + 25 ml
distilled water (T3).
The snake plant that researchers are going to use in planting are one piece of snake plant
per replicates, and it has the same size of 1 ft.

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Experimental Design and Treatments
Three treatments organized in Completely Randomized Design with their replications
were used in this study. This study supervene a comprehensive randomized design and consisted
of one control and three treatments with one replicates each. The treatments were as follows:
T˳- control
T1 – 250 ppm
T2 – 500 ppm
T3 – 750 ppm
Treatment and Planting of Cuttings
The end of the prepared Sanseviera trifasciata cuttings will be dipped into the ANAA
concentration for one minute. The preserved cuttings will be planted exactly into formerly
prepared holes in the rooting medium. The prepared soil is sandy loam and the soil at the base of
the cutting was pressed gently to expedite root growth.
Care of the Newly Planted Cuttings
Three days afterwards, light watering of 500 ml water will be done using a water
sprinkler. Consequent watering will be done every other day to keep the dampness of the rooting
medium.

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Data Gathered
1. Number of days from planting to root initiation. The number of days will be recorded from
the day of planting up to the period where the cuttings will produce root initials. Periodic
uprooting of sample cuttings will be engaged for this parameter. The observation will be
performed after 20 days of planting and the next observation will be done every 5 days in each
treatments.
2. Average number of roots produced per cutting. The average number of roots will be recorded
by tallying the total number of roots produced by 3 sample cuttings contained from one
replication divided by three.
3. Average length of root (cm). The average length of root will be determined by measuring the
length of two longer roots of three sample cuttings contained from one replication divided by
three. Gauging will be done by means of foot rule from the base to the tip of the root.
4. Percentage survival of cuttings (%). Forty-two days after transplanting of cuttings, the number
of cuttings that stay alive and produced roots from each replication will be counted. Percentage
of survival will be determined by using the following formula.
% 𝑆𝑢𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑙 =
𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑢𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑑
𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑢𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑
× 100
Statistical Analysis of Data
All the data gathered will be tabulated and statistically analyzed using the Analysis of
Variance (ANOVA) for a Completely Randomized Design to determine the significant
differences due to ANAA treatments. Evaluation among means will be done using the Duncan’s

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Multiple Range Test (DMRT) to determine the differences among means at 0.05 level of
probability.