Abstract

Mollugo nudicaulis Lam, is a traditionally important wild medicinal herb, the leaves have been used by traditional practioners for curing whooping cough and jaundice. This plant in nature propagated itself through seeds during rainy season, collection of plant material for extraction of drug is a major task. To overcome these constraints in vitro propagation protocol for M. nudicaulis was developed using shoot tip culture. Shoot tips were cultured on different types of nutrient medium fortified with different concentrations and combinations of growth regulators. Among these Murashige and Skoog’s (MS) media containing 2 mg/l of BAP alone found to be suitable for multiple shoot induction. Roots were induced on half-strength MS medium containing IBA (1 mg/l). Further antioxidant activity was carried out using natural leaves extracts (NLE) and in vitro leaf extracts (ILE) using reducing power and DPPH radical scavenging assays. In vitro derived leaf extracts showing more antioxidant activity than NLE. In addition we examined the content of total phenolics in NLE and ILE by FC method. An approximate 1.75 fold increased total phenolic content was observed in in vitro derived leaves (2.502 mg/g) than that of natural leaves extract (1.43 mg/g). This increased phenolic content in in vitro leaf extracts indicated a good correlation between the levels of phenol and antioxidant activity. Results, suggested that the developed protocol will have a direct impact on the exploitation of biotechnological sources for extraction of large scale antioxidants for medicinal purposes.

Key words: Mollugo nudicaulis, multiple shoot induction, shoot tip, antioxidant activity, natural leaves extracts, in vitro propagated leaves extracts.