Micropropagation: A Boon for Conservation of Valuable Vines and Lianas

Abstract

Woody climbers or lianas are one of the important assets of nature upon which rely many folk and traditional systems of medicine. The increasing need and demand with growing population and thoughtless utilisation of natural products, so far, have resulted into a dwindling population of many plant species. In the present scenario, increasing health issues, hazardous effects of synthetic drugs and thus the preference of natural products over synthetic one, is questioning the survival of many valuable medicinal plant species. Moreover, their own growth pattern, reproductive behaviour and maturation time are the key issues for which fast alternative propagation methods are sought. Advances in the field of biotechnology have opened fresh avenues for replenishment and conservation of such high value plants-plant tissue culture (PTC) or in vitro technique is one among them. In vitro techniques like adventitious shoot regeneration, somatic embryogenesis, bioreactors and fermentation process have speed up regeneration time manyfold. The techniques like protoplast culture, micrografting and genetic transformation have been implied for variety improvement, whereas cryopreservation, slow growth methods and synseed production have been reported for long-term storage of germplasm and their exchange. Thus, PTC justifies a great deal of contribution in conserving the wealth of nature proving itself a reliable technique in plant biodiversity conservation. Nowadays laudable attempts have been done for the conservation of various useful medicinal climbers through PTC such as Salacia reticulata, Celastrus paniculatus, Cocculus hirsutus, Leptadenia reticulata, Caesalpinia bonduc, Tinospora cordifolia, Embelia ribes, Decalepis hamiltonii, Naravelia zeylanica and Ceropegia thwaitesii.