Arsenic is a deadly poisonous metalloid. The main sources of arsenic in soils are the parent materials from which they are derived. Arsenic exists in water always in ionic forms (H2ASO-4 H2ASO-3) and the water is used for the cultivation of various crop plants (rice, soybean, tomato, cotton, tobacco etc.). The Arsenic ions (H2AsO4) absorbed by the plants might have effects on physiological, biochemical as well as cytogenetical system of the plant. The various forms of arsenic compounds applied in the cultivation field as fungicides, pesticides, herbicides as well as plant defoliants having impact on the crop plants as well as on the whole ecosystem. The homoeopathic drug Arsenicum album, prepared from the deadly poisonous Arsenious Oxide (ASO3) was applied in dilutions of different potencies (10-3 to 10-200000) on seeds of the commercially jute yielding plant Corchorous olitorius Linn var. JR0 632. Viable seeds were soaked in a solution prepared by adding 10 drops (one drop=0.06 ml) of the drug of specific dilutions to 50 ml of distilled water for 12 hours. The treated seeds were washed thoroughly and allowed to germinate. The growth and behavior of the plants were noted from seedling stage up to maturity. Inheritance studies were done through progeny trial in the successive generations. These include tall plants, dwarf plants, bifurcated stem, bushy head, branched stem, broad leaves, dark green and yellowish green leaves, early and late flowering plant, fruit mutants, suppressed leaf mutant (leaf gap) and coppery red plant with notched petals. Although majorities of these mutants are reported to be available after treatment with ionizing radiation, at least a few were considered to be new and these were not reported earlier. This investigation reveals that the homeopathic drug prepared from Arsenious-Oxide in ultra-diluted potencies is capable of inducing mutation in plant system like jute.

Key words: ARSENICUM ALBUM (Arsenious Oxide, AS2O3), CORCHORUS OLITORIUS L. (JUTE), MUTAGEN