Abstract

     Plant regeneration was achieved from the diverse explants such as epicotyl, cotyledon, hypocotyl and root explants of important medicinal plant Aegle marmelos. Explants were obtained from 4 week old axenic seedlings of A. marmelos and cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with plant growth regulators to ascertain the suitable explants and media composition for mass production.  Cytokinins benzylaminopurine (BAP) and kinetin (Kin) were used for multiple shoot induction. Between two cytokinin tested, BAP was more efficient than Kin with respect to the initiation and subsequent proliferation of shoot buds. Addition of an auxin along with cytokinin improved the shoot production capacity. Shoot buds could be initiated from all the explants tested, with epicotyl explants producing the highest average number of shoots/explant. MS medium supplemented with 2.2 μM BAP + 1.425 μM indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) produced maximum number of shoots. The regenerated shoots were further multiplied by sub culturing on fresh medium. The elongated shoots were shifted to half-strength MS medium supplemented with different concentrations of IAA, α-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) and indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) for root induction. Rooting was better in the medium augmented with 2.85 μM IAA. About 90% of the rooted plantlets survived acclimatization and transfer to the field.

Key words: Aegle marmelos, medicinal plant, micropropagation, seedling explants, cytokinin