Abstract

Town Mohammad Hussain ,* , Thummala Chandrasekhar and Ghanta Rama Gopal

An efficient and reproducible procedure for the large scale propagation of Crotalaria verrucosa, an important ethno botanical herb is described. Multiple shoots were produced from cotyledonary nodes of 15 days old aseptic seedlings on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with thidiazuron (TDZ) or benzyladenine (BA). Highest number (6.0) of shoots per cotyledonary node was recorded on MS medium with 0.1 M thidiazuron after 4 weeks of culture. Proliferating shoot cultures were established by repeatedly sub culturing the original cotyledonary node on fresh medium (MS + 0.1 M TDZ) after harvesting newly formed shoots. The shoot forming capacity of explants was influenced by the type and concentration of the growth regulator in the medium. Roots formed on excised shoots when these were cultured on quarter strength MS medium containing 1.0 M indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). Plantlets were acclimatized in vermiculite and established in soil.