MICROPROPAGATION OF A HIGHLY IMPORTANT MEDICINAL PLANT

Poster presentation by research team from the Dept. of Botany

Nikhila.G.S., Bannita Kumari and T.S.Swapna
Department of Botany University College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
Abstract
Gymnema sylvestre belongs to the family Asclepiadaceae and the plant is considered to be a good source of a large number of bioactive substances. It is a vulnerable medicinal plant species and is a slow growing, perennial woody climber found in India. Gymnema sylvestre has a reputation as a traditional remedy to control diabetes mellitus. A number of Sarponins such as Gymnemic acid, Deacyl gymnemic acid, gymnemagenin, gymnestrogenin have been purified from Gymnema sylvestre. The leaf extract from this plant is used as stimulant, laxative, diuretic, antisweetner, antibacterial, antiviral and anti-inflamatory activities. Commercial exploration of this plant for production and conventional propagation is hampered due to its poor seed viability, low rate of germination and poor rooting ability of vegetative cuttings. Micropropagation is a useful method for multiplication of this plant which requires conservation. Using tissue culture secondary metabolites such as gymnemic acid, gymnimagenin etc can be produced in large scale. In the present work different explants (axillary node, shoot tip, cotyledonary node, leaf petiole, root and internode segments) were used for multiplication of Gymnema in basic MS medium. Various concentrations of cytokinins (BA and Kinetin) auxins (IAA, IBA, NAA, 2,4-D) were tried for somatic embryogenesis, multiple shoot and root induction. Of these combinations IBA & BAP and 2,4 –D & BAP were found to be more suitable for callusing and regeneration.
Key words- Gymnema, micropropagation, medicinal plant, somatic embryogenesis, multiple shooting