In vitro studies in Wrightia tinctoria _Roxb_ a medicinally important woody plant

Abstract

WTR is medicinally important soft woody plant belongs to the family Apocynaceae having excellent therapeutic constituents that are used in treating many human ailments like psoriasis, diabetics and cancer. In view of low percent of natural regeneration, over exploitation due to its medicinal and commercial importance in different human ailments; and in toy making and pala indigo dye respectively and the hurdles facing by the Etikoppaka toy making industry, (Vizag, A.P. India), there is a need for conservation and production of propagules of this valuable soft woody and medicinally important tree. In brief, the results from present study are as follows. The study on breaking seed dormancy indicated that, the seed treatment with 20 % sulphuric acid for five min that was inoculated on MS media supplemented with GA3 (2.5 mg/L) supported in breaking dormancy, resulted in 98% of germination; as well as reduced the days required for germination from 15 to 4 days. Nodal explants from 15 days old in vitro seedling when inoculated on MS media amended with BAP (1.5 mg/L) + NAA (0.1 mg/L), induced 14 shoots per explant in 30 days with a length of 4.6 - 5.2 cm. The shoots derived from above study when further inoculated on media fortified with IBA (3.5 mg/L), showed eight roots per one shoot explant with maximum length of 6.9 cm. 99 % shoots initiated roots within 21 days of shoot inoculation. After 28 days of rooting, the plantlets were acclimatized to natural conditions through different stages and the % of survival rates of plantlets in the natural conditions were found to be 55 %. newlineThe cotyledonary leaf midrib of in vitro seedling of WTR on MS media supplemented with KIN (0.5 mg/L)+ NAA (0.25 mg/L) resulted in healthy, friable, light creamy greenish callus with fast growth, which was selected for preparation of solvent extracts to determine the phytochemical compounds and the biological activities such as antimicrobial, antioxidant and cytotoxicity. newline