Abstract

An economic and efficient procedure has been outlined for plant regeneration of an important medicinal shrub, Holarrhena antidysenterica W. using nodal explants obtained from about 20-year-old mature trees growing in the field, belonging to the family of Apocynaceae. Shoot development was maximum (90%) on Murashige and Skoog’s (MS) basal medium supplemented with α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA, 2.0 mg/L), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA, 1.0 mg/L), and KIN (1.0 mg/L) with (10.06 ± 0.24) mean number of shoots per explants and the maximum shoot length was found to be 4.01 ± 0.37. The role of auxins were instrumental as rooting of the differentiated shoots was best in MS medium with combination of indole-3-butyric acid (IBA, 1.5 mg/L) and IAA (1.5 mg/L) with 13.14 ± 0.08 mean number of roots per shoots and the mean root length was found to be 5.61 ± 0.03. Regenerated plantlets were successfully acclimated in the green house and after a hardening period of 4 weeks, 90% transplantation success was achieved under the natural condition. The established in vitro propagated plants were identical and uniform on the basis of the morphology and growth characteristics to the donor plants used in the study.

Key words: Holarrhena antidysenterica, medicinal shrub, rooting, plant regeneration, nodal explants.