MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION OF Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench ACCESSIONS IN MEDICINAL PLANT AND TRADITIONAL MEDICINE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OFFICE

ABSTRACTEchinacea purpurea (L.) Moench is one of the major medicinal herbs that have continued to gain commercialinterest worldwide owing to its antiviral, antibacterial and immunostimulatory activities. Medicinal Plant andTraditional Medicine Research and Development Office has been cultivating E. purpurea since 2002. There aremorphological variation of E. purpurea found. The objective of this research was to characterize and to determineE. purpurea accessions based on morphological characters. Echinacea purpurea was cultivated in the collectionfield at 1200 m asl for five months. The observation were done base on morphological characters and continuedwith the selection of E. purpurea that has morphological differences. The results showed that there were ten accessionsof E. purpurea which have specifics morphological characters especially in their inflorescence.Key words: Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench, morphological variation ABSTRAKEchinacea purpurea (L.) Moench merupakan salah satu tumbuhan obat yang penting dan digunakan sebagaiantivirus, antibakteri, dan mempunyai aktivitas sebagai imunomudolator. Ekinase telah dibudidayakan diBalai Besar Penelitian dan Pengembangan Tanaman Obat dan Obat Tradisional sejak tahun 2002 serta menunjukkanvariasi morfologi selama ditanam. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk karakterisasi dan menentukanaksesi ekinase berdasarkan karakter morfologi. Ekinase ditanam di kebun koleksi pada ketinggian 1.200 mdpl selama lima bulan. Pengamatan dilakukan pada karakter morfologi ekinase dan dilanjutkan dengan seleksiaksesi berdasarkan perbedaan karakter morfologi. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan terdapat sebanyak 10 aksesiekinase yang mempunyai perbedaan morfologi terutama pada bagian perbungaan.Kata kunci: Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench, variasi morfolog