Micropropagation and conservation of selected endangered anticancer medicinal plants from the Western Ghats of India

Globally, cancer is a constant battle which severely affects the human population. The major limitations of the anticancer drugs are the deleterious side effects on the quality of life. Plants play a vital role in curing many diseases with minimal or no side effects. Phytocompounds derived from various medicinal plants serve as the best source of drugs to treat cancer. The global demand for phytomedicines is mostly reached by the medicinal herbs from the tropical nations of the world even though many plant species are threatened with extinction. India is one of the mega diverse countries of the world due to its ecological habitats, latitudinal variation, and diverse climatic range. Western Ghats of India is one of the most important depositories of endemic herbs. It is found along the stretch of south western part of India and constitutes rain forest with more than 4000 diverse medicinal plant species. In recent times, many of these therapeutically valued herbs have become endangered and are being included under the red-listed plant category in this region. Due to a sharp rise in the demand for plant-based products, this rich collection is diminishing at an alarming rate that eventually triggered dangerous to biodiversity. Thus, conservation of the endangered medicinal plants has become a matter of importance. The conservation by using only in situ approaches may not be sufficient enough to safeguard such a huge bio-resource of endangered medicinal plants. Hence, the use of biotechnological methods would be vital to complement the ex vitro protection programs and help to reestablish endangered plant species. In this backdrop, the key tools of biotechnology that could assist plant conservation were developed in terms of in vitro regeneration, seed banking, DNA storage, pollen storage, germplasm storage, gene bank (field gene banking), tissue bank, and cryopreservation. In this chapter, an attempt has been made to critically review major endangered medicinal plants that possess anticancer compounds and their conservation aspects by integrating various biotechnological tool

ESTIMATION OF CURCUMINOIDS IN CURCUMA KARNATAKENSIS (WHITE TURMERIC) - AN ENDEMIC TAXON

  Objective: To estimate the contents of curcuminoids in two samples of Curcuma karnatakensis collected from different localities.Methods: Quantification of curcuminoids was estimated by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry/selected reaction monitoring (UHPLC-MS/SRM) method in two samples of C. karnatakensis for the first time. Fine powder of rhizomatous rootstocks of two plant samples collected from different habitats were served as Samples A and B. The MS used for the metabolite analysis is a Vantage TSQ triple stage quadrupole MS equipped with heated electrospray ionization. The MS is coupled with an Agilent 1290 infinity UHPLC system. A stock solution of curcuminoid standard was prepared by dissolving 5 mg of standard in 1 mL of methanol. Seven different concentrations of standard (0.15-10 ng on column) were injected for the UHPLC-MS/SRM analysis. Separations were performed using a C-18 column with a flow rate of 0.2 mL/minute.Results: Contents of curcumin, demethoxycurcumin, and bisdemethoxycurcumin were found to be varied in two samples and lowest than any other species of Curcuma studied. Variation in the contents may be due to their different habitats in which they are growing.Conclusion: The present attempt of analyzing the contents of curcuminoids in this endemic taxon for the first time will provide the basis for further pharmacological analysis to authenticate the efficacy of these active principles as the curcuminoids are known for varied pharmacological activities

Plant regeneration from shoot callus of rosewood (Dalbergia latifolia Roxb)

In vitro propagation of trees using cell, tissue and organ culture is a fast emerging area. We report here the clonal propagation ol Indian rosewood (Dalbergia latifolia Roxb.) from shoot callus cultures of 5 year old trees. Bud regeneration was obtained on MS media supplemented with BA and NAA. About 35% of the cultures showed organogenesis. Shoots measuring about 3-5 cm can be excised and rooted in White's medium supplemented with t-2 mg/L IAA. Rooted plants were successfully established in soil

Somatic embryogenesis in Flax

Callus was initiated from hypocotyl explants of three elite varieties of Linum usitatissimum L. on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with various growth regulators. Somatic embryos differentiated from callus grown on MS + alpha -naphthaleneacetic acid. The origin from a single cell and subsequent developmental stages was traced. Embryos developed into normal plants upon transfer to MS + 2.69 muM alpha -naphthaleneacetic acid + 2.22 muM 6-benzyladenine in two varieties. The medium was supplemented with several additives (abscisic acid, glycine, lysine, glutamine and casein hydrolysate) to increase the percentage of normal plant development from embryos; none of the additives could promote the growth of the shoot apex