Department of Plant Physiology, College of Basic Sciences & Humanities, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar-263145 (Uttarakhand)
*Email: dshankhdhar@rediffmail.com
Online published on 3 December, 2012.
Phenols and flavonoid are important antioxidants and have ROS scavenging property. All parts of Withania somnifera are rich source of these compounds and used to treat various diseases like nerve tissue damage, heart disease, atherosclerosis, cancer, aids and aging. But this miracle herb is being exploited and only the tissue culture technique can be used to save and improve the quality of this herb. In our investigation it was observed that phenols and flavonoid content was increased with increase in age of callus in two varieties of Withania somnifera namely Poshita and Jawahar 20. Sixty days old callus of Poshita and Jawahar 20 contain 325 and 340mg/Kg total phenol and 320 and 224 mg/Kg flavonoids, respectively. 20g/l sucrose in media was also effective to increase the phenols and flavonoid content.
Withania somnifera, Phenols, flavonoid, antioxidants
