In vitro germination of Markhamia tomentosa Benth K. Schum ex. Engl. and preliminary phytochemical screening for medicinal compounds

Abstract

Markhamia tomentosa is used in ethno-medicine for the cure of common diseases such as malaria. There are currently few plants in their natural tropical habitats, as it is difficult to propagate. We have developed a simple protocol for in vitro regeneration of M. tomentosa using matured seeds and determined the secondary metabolites present in the in vitro-derived seedlings. Effects of two media types, i.e., Woody plant medium (WPM), and Murashige and Skoog (MS) basal medium with and without plant growth regulators, viz., 6-benzyl amino purine (BAP) and indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) @ 0, 1, 2, 3 mg l−1 were studied separately on in vitro germination and growth of seedlings. Seeds were surface disinfected, cultured in the above media and incubated at 27 °C and 16/8 light/dark photoperiod and a light intensity of 40 μmol m−2 s−1 provided by cool white fluorescent tubes prior to seeds germination. Results showed that the WPM alone produced significantly more germinated seeds (11.7) than MS (7.7) media. Significantly more germinated seedlings were produced on WPM with a combination of 1 mg l−1 BAP (10.7) or 2 mg l−1 IBA (9) than the control or other treatments. Anthraquinones were absent in the wild plants but were detected in the in vitro-derived plants (7.4 mg g−1 dry wt). This study provides the first report on a protocol for in vitro germination of this medicinally important species that could be applied to rescue it from extinction, as well as information on the phytochemical profile of the in vitro derived plants.