Direct high frequency plantlet regeneration from leaf explants of Solanum torvum (swartz). A medicinally important plant

Tissue culture techniques of medicinal plants are important for the production of plant-based high quality medicine. Solanum torvum (Swartz) possesses immense medicinal importance of decoction of fruits is given for cough ailments and is considered useful in cases of liver and spleen enlargement. The plant is sedative and diuretic and the leaves are used as a haemostatic. The ripened fruits are used in the preparation of tonic and haemopoietic agents and also for the treatment for pain. It has antioxidant properties. It is intensively used worldwide in the traditional medicine as poison anti-dote and for the treatment of fever, wounds, tooth decay, reproductive problems and in vitro culture for commercial production was achieved by culturing the plant using different concentration and combination of plant growth regulators. Mainly, the concentration and combination of auxins and cytokinins in the nutrient MS medium is the key factor which determines successful plant regeneration. Direct high frequency plantlet regeneration has been obtained from 15-20days old seedling leaf explants of Solanum torvum (Swartz) using various phytohormones individually and in combination on Murashige and Skoog (MS) semi solid medium supplemented with BAP (1.0–5.0 mg/L), Kn (1.0–5.0 mg/L), I AA (0.5 mg/L)+ BAP (1.0–5.0 mg/L) and IAA (0.5 mg/L)+Kn (1.0–5.0 mg/L) for shoot proliferation. IAA (0.5 mg/L)+BAP (3.0 mg/L) proved to be best for induction of shoots for leaf explants. Individual shoots were aseptically excised and sub cultured in the same media for shoot elongation. The elongated shoots were transferred to Indole Butyric Acid (IBA) (1.0mg/L-5.0mg/L) for root induction. Rooting was observed within two weeks of culture. The rooted plantlets were successfully hardened under culture conditions and subsequently established in field conditions. The recorded survival rate of the plants was 86% and the plants were healthy with no visually detectable phenotypic variations.