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Withania somnifera (L) Dunal (Ashwaganda) is a Solanaceous herb having
numerous medicinal values widely used in traditional Ayurvedic drug preparations. An
efficient protocol for in vitro plant regeneration via direct adventitious shoot proliferation
from leaf explants of Ashwaganda is developed. MS medium containing 1.5mg/l BAP and
1.5mg/l IAA was found to be the best medium for maximum in vitro response i.e., 100(%
shooting) and 68(shoots/explant). An improved in vitro shoot bud elongation and rooting
was achieved on MS medium fortified with 0.15mg/l GA3 and 5mg/l IBA respectively.
Rooted plants were hardened and transplanted in earthen pots and were showed 80-90%
survival during transplantation.
Key words: Adventitious shoot, Ashwaganda, BAP, IAA, IBA, KN.
Medicinal plants are of great interest
to the researchers in the field of
biotechnology as most of the drug
industries depend in part on plants for the
production of pharmaceutical compounds
(Chand et al., 1997). WHO estimated that
80% of the population of developing
countries relies on traditional medicines,
mostly plant drugs, for their primary health
care needs. The developed nations are also
looking for eco-friendly treatment of
various diseases through plant based
source. In addition, many valuable herbal
drugs have been discovered by knowing
that particular plant was used by the
ancient folk healers for the treatment of
some kind of ailment (Ekka and Dixit,
2007). Withania somnifera (L) Dunal is a
member of the family Solanaceae commonly
known as Ashwaganda. Its root part rich in
alkaloids (withanine) (Majumdar, 1955),
which are valuable constitutes in traditional
Ayurvedic drug preparations against many
diseases viz., hiccup, female disorders,
cough, rheumatism and dropsy (Kiritikar
and Basu, 1975). Besides roots, the other
parts of this plant also useful for the
treatment of inflammatory conditions,
tuberculosis and exhibits excellent antitumor
and anti-bacterial activities (Devi and
Sharada, 1992, Devi, 1996). Due to the
indiscriminate collection of huge amount of
this plant by local herbalists, Ayurvedic and
Unany companies, this plant species is on
the verge of extinction. Under such a
situation it is important to develop
techniques for rapid mass propagation of
this species to meet up the commercial need
and also for protecting the genetic erosion.
In vitro micro propagation technology has
sound and extensive potential for
commercial rapid multiplication of plants
because it is a quick method, allows roundthe-
year propagation of identical plants,
and produces plants free from diseases. The
conventional method of propagating this
species is through seeds, but seed viability
is very poor and low germination limits its
multiplication. Moreover, seed-derived
progenies are not true to type, due to crosspollination
(Heywood, 1978). In Withania,
several procedures were available for
inducing in vitro response using leaf
explants (Baburaj and Gunasekaran, 1995,
Kulkarni et al., 1996, Govindaraju et al.,
2003, Sivanesan and Murugesan, 2005,
Shrivastava and Dubey, 2007, De Silva and
Senarath, 2009, Valizadeh and Valizadeh,
2009, Dewir et al., 2010, Ghimire et al., 2010,
Joshi and Padhya, 2010, Logesh et al., 2010,
Sharma et al., 2010, Singh et al., 2011).
However, the rate of plant regeneration per
explant is not sufficiently high to be
practical application. Therefore, we report a
rapid and efficient method for direct
adventitious shoot bud proliferation from
leaf explants of Withania somnifera (L)
Dunal.
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