Laboratory of Plant Tissue Culture & Stress Physiology, Department of Plant Physiology, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221 005.
* Corresponding author: E-mail: pdwivedi25@rediffmail.com
Tylophora asthamatica, a perennial climbing plant and member of Asclepiadaceae, has tremendous medicinal value in Ayurvedic system of medicine. It is generally used for anti-asthamatic and anti-allergic treatment. Besides being effective in the treatment of bronchial asthma, bronchitis, hay fever, rheumatism and dermatitis, its major constituent alkaloid tylophorine also has anti-inflammatory action. Over-exploitation of Tylophora for its above mentioned medicinal properties has prompted to undertake its conservation strategies through plant tissue culture technique. For regenerating shoots of Tylophora asthamatica nodal segments were inoculated on to MS half strength and MS full strength media containing different concentrations and combinations of auxins (IAA and IBA) and cytokinins (Kinetin and BAP). The MS half strength medium fortified with BAP (1.5 mg/l), BAP + IBA (1.0 mg/l each), Kn
+ IBA (0.2 mg/l each) and Kn + IBA (0.5 mg/l each) favoured best response in terms of multiple shooting, leaf number, leaf length and rooting, respectively, whereas shoot elongation was best in case of full strength of MS medium fortified with BAP + kinetin (0.5 mg/l each) after 45 days of inoculation of explants. The plantlets thus developed were hardened and acclimatized in mixture of garden soil and sand (1:1).
Cytokinin, in vitro culture, medicinal plant, Tylophora asthmatica
