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Plant Tissue Cult. 5(2) : 147-152, 1995
Establishment of Medium-term Tissue Cultures of Picrorhiza kurroa and Rheum emodi
Nand Lal1 and Paramvir Ahuja2
Division of Plant Tissue Culture, CIMAP, Lucknow 226 015, India
Key words:
Picrorhiza kurroa, Rheum emodi, Shoot cultures, Medium-term cultures, Low temperature storage, Mineral oil
Abstract
Shoot and callus cultures of two endangered medicinal plants, Picrorhiza kurroa Royle ex Benth. And Rheum emodi Wall., were maintained for 64 and 30 weeks, respectively on hormone-free MS medium incubated at 4-100C in the dark. Shoot explants of both the species survived for shorter durations at 250C on MS medium incubated either in the light or dark (with or without mineral oil overaly). Encapsulated shoot buds of P. kurroa could also be stored up to 24 weeks on nutrient-free agar from 4-100C in the dark. Like-wise, subculturing of callus cultures could be prolonged up to 35 weeks by maintaining the cultures at 250C on optimal growth medium overlaid with mineral oil. Morphogenic potential of R. emodi callus was slightly reduced as observe in recovery tests. P. kurroa shoots maintained at 4-100C showed induction of multiple shoots on the media lacking cytokinin.
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