In vitro plant production through apical meristem culture of Gentiana kurroo Royle

Abstract

Gentiana kurroo Royle is a critically endangered medicinal herb belonging to the family Gentianaceae. The roots and rhizomes of the plant have been extensively used as a bitter tonic, antiperiodic, expectorant, antibilious, anthelmintic, anticancer, immunomodulatory, antinflammatory and analgesic. A method for rapid micropropagation of Gentiana kurroo through apical meristem has been developed. Apical meristem was excised to a length of 0.2-2 mm from the shoot tips. Among different treatments of growth regulators either alone or in combination, the growth of meristem was best observed on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 6- Benzyl amino purine (BAP) (1.0 mg/l) and Indole acetic acid (IAA) (0.5 mg/l). The maximum response for meristem proliferation was 83.3% with an average mean number of 8.1 ± 0.2 leaves /explant. Three weeks old sprouted meristems were transferred to the MS medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/l each of Kinetin (KN) and BAP for shoot elongation and proliferation resulting in 5- 6 shoots/ explant. In vitro regenerated shoots developed roots in six weeks when transferred to half strength MS medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/l Indole butyric acid (IBA) with a survival rate of 86%.