In-vitro Propagation of Aerva lanata (L.) Juss

The knowledge of medicinal plants and their uses, based on different therapeutic systems such as Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha, have been described in ancient texts including the Vedas. In India, approximately 1700 plant species are used in Ayurveda, 500 for Siddha, 400 for Unani, 300 for Amchi systems of medicine. Majority of the medicinal plants either don¿t produce seeds or seeds are too small and don¿t germinate in soils. Some plants are not amenable to vegetative propagation through cutting and grafting, thus limiting multiplication of desired cultivars. Many plants propagated by vegetative means contain systemic bacteria, fungi and viruses which may affect the quality and appearance of selected items. The increased demand for plant based medicine has caused rapid depletion of natural resources. Hence there is necessity for conservation, characterization and mass multiplication of medicinal plants used in herbal drug preparation. In the present study, different explants were cultured in MS medium variously supplemented with cytokinins and combination of cytokinins and auxins to assess the regenerative potentiality in A. lanata through organogenesis and somatic embryogenesis.