In vitro regeneration of Brahmi (Bacopa monnieri (Linn.) Pennell) - an important medicinal herb through nodal segment culture

Abstract

An efficient and cost effective in vitro plant regeneration protocol through nodalsegment culture was achieved in the medicinally important herb Bacopa monnieri (L.)Pennell, the Memory Plus plant through axillary shoot proliferation in Murashige and Skooge medium augmented with varying concentrations of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP)1 - 5 mg/l. BAP at 2 mg/l was the most effective in multiple shoot induction and mean number of leaves, which gave an average of 17 shoots and 31.11 leaves, compared toother concentrations of the hormone tried in 35 days of culture. Regarding mean shoot length and number of nodes, basal MS giving 2.66 cm long shoots with 7.44 nodes is thebest. MS basal medium, even though not promoting shoot multiplication, gave highershoot length with elongated internodes. Healthy rooting of the in vitro developed shootswas achieved in half and full strength MS basal solid medium without the addition ofany hormones. The healthy and vigorous in vitro regenerated micro shoots wereseparated out and were hardened on transfer to plastic cups with sterile soil and sandand were successfully acclimatized ex vitro in pots with potting mixture under greenhouse conditions for 3 weeks. The survival rate was 100% and the plants establishedwell in green house resembled the mother plants in habitat without any morphological variations. The very simple and cost effective protocol developed can be used to produceelite stable clones for en masse propagation for the large-scale cultivation of this very important medicinal herb.