In vitro propagation of endangered medicinal plant–Commiphora wightii

Abstract

Present study reports in vitro multiplication and conservation of Commiphora wightii and the influence of growth regulators, location of the explant on mother plant, influence of apical dominance and the size of explant on regeneration ability. Out of the 40, single as well as combinations of BAP, Kn, NAA, IBA and GA3 used, only three combination treatments of BAP (3mg/l) with IBA (0.1-0.3mg/l) induced shoot development in node and shoot tip cultures. Further, among the three nodes, 1st node (shoot tip) performed better on BAP, IBA and GA3 supplemented medium. Commiphora wightii shows strong apical dominance, the influence of dominance was tested with four explants- shoot tip, simple node, axillary bud and node –AD. Shoot tip, simple node, and axillary bud result no shoot bud development on any concentration or combinations of BAP and/or GA3 tested. Whereas, the node -ADs alone showed shoots development. Best percentage response of node-AD was observed on 2mg/l BAP+0.5mg/l GA3 (27%) followed by 1mg/l BAP+1.5mg/l GA3 (25%) medium. Further, node-AD with two nodes and two internodes performed better and survived for more than 6 weeks on the same medium without subculture as compared to node-AD of 0.5-0.8 cm in size with single node. Regenerated shoots transferred to MS + activated charcoal medium after dipping in NAA, IAA or IBA (200ppm) solutions , showed root development within 20 days of culture with 24 – 26% response. All the regenerated plants were successfully transferred to field conditions. Thus, the paper reports the successful in vitro propagation of Commiphora wightii. Keywords: Commiphora wightii, Endangered, Medicinal plant, In vitro propagation, Tissue culture, India