Effect of explant type in development of in vitro micropropagation protocol of an endangered medicinal plant: Curcuma caesia Roxb

Curcuma caesia Roxb. belonging to family Zingiberaceae is an important traditional medicinal plant. The rhizome has been widely used as folklore medicine. Chhattisgarh state medicinal plant board has categorized it as an endangered plant. Turmeric/ginger is vegetatively propagated exclusively through underground rhizomes and multiplication rate is very low. Furthermore, susceptibility to diseases, specifically soft rot caused by Pythium species causes heavy losses. In vitro micropropagation technique can be useful for conservation and commercial exploitation of valuable secondary metabolites in medicinal plants. In vitro plant regeneration system depends upon many factors but the type of explants has been identified as one of the major factor. Thus, the present study was conducted using various parts of the plant viz. leaf, root, rhizome sections, mature bud of rhizome and sprouted bud of rhizome in different hormone concentration and combinations in MS medium. Only mature bud and sprouted bud from the rhizome responded while others did not show any sign of morphogenesis. Sprouted and mature bud showed best response in 4 mg L -1 BAP+1OOmg L-1 ADS with mean 3.8±0.32 number of shoots and mean 3.28±0.42 cm length, similarly, 1±0.39 mean shoots and mean 1.17±0.48 cm length in mature bud. In vitro produced plants were easily established in soil with almost 100% survival and were morphologically similar to their parent plants. Thus, sprouted buds of the rhizome can be exploited for further micropropagation and conservation studies. © 2014 Asian Network for Scientific Information.