PLANT CELL BIOTECHNOLOGY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

Abstract

Saraca asoca (Roxb.) de Wilde (Ceasalpiniaceae) is a vulnerable medicinal as well as ornamental potential tree, distributed in the different parts of Western Ghats. Bark of S. asoca is extremely useful in uterine affections especially menorrhagia due to uterine fibroids and other causes. It is useful in many gynecological problems such as uterine bleeding associated with fibroids and the treatment of leucorrhoea. S. asoca is used in the treatment of dyspepsia, indigestion, blood disorders, tumors etc. Seeds have been recommended in the treatment of bone fractures, strangury and vesical calculi. The dried flowers are used in diabetes, haemorrhagic and dysentery. Increase in the number of people with poor health has made the alternative medical practitioners and pharmaceutical companies to exploit many important medicinal plants. Among these, S. asoca is also under severe threat due to unscientific management practices, ever increasing demand for its phytochemicals, poor seed viability and over exploitation of the plant parts like bark, flowers, seeds etc., has resulted in the dwindling of population in the wild. By considering the promising horticultural as well as medicinal important and its limited distribution, an efficient and reproducible method of in vitroclonal propagation through shoot tip, nodal and inter nodal explants of S. asoca was carried out. This direct method would be highly useful for the conservation of this vulnerable tree species. The synergetic effect of BAP (0.5 mg/L) induced a mean of 11.71±0.53 adventitious shoots from the nodal explants. The frequency of shoot organogenesis was highest (82%) in nodal explants treated with 0.5 mg/L of BAP and callus were formed more on 2,4-D. The micro shoots rooted well on MS medium supplemented with 4.0 mg/L of IBA. 40% of the hardened regenerants were acclimatized to the soil.