Rapid in vitro multiplication of disease-free Zingiber officinale Rosc.

Ginger belonging to the family Zingiberaceae is a rhizomatous medicinal spice. Biotechnological improvement of ginger is important due to its lack of flowering and seed set. Direct in vitro regeneration of disease-free plantlets was achieved through tissue culture. Different media supplemented with different concentrations and combinations of cytokinins were studied. Murashige and Skoog media supplemented with 4 mg/l benzyl amino purine (BAP) provided the best regeneration compared to kinetin (kn) and zeatin (Zn) when they were used alone. Combination of 4 mg/l BAP and 3 mg/l Kn resulted in maximum number of shoots. Profuse rooting was observed in the same media. Hardenings of the healthy plantlets were done in mixture of garden soil and sand in the proportion of 1:1. Ninety four per cent of the plantlets survived hardening and all the plantlets got established in the field. Diagnostic tests-rhizome pieces were transferred to PDA to observe fungal growth on the medium, visual observations on the presence of ginger yellows symptoms and detection of the number of rotted rhizomes after storage on river sand were performed to detect the presence or absence of the pathogen in tissue culture-derived clones. Comparative studies of in vitro regenerated and conventional planting materials were performed in field. Superiority of the in vitro plantlets was established.