Callus culture and Morphogenetic Reposes of a Medicinally Important Plant Butea monosperma.

An in vitro protocol was developed for callus production and regeneration of Butea monosperma of family fabaceae which is widely used in traditional medicine around the world. It is a common plant of medicinal value and distributed throughout India and is known as Flame of forest,  palash, mutthuga, bijasneha, dhak, khakara, chichra. Different explants (seeds and nodal segments) used in the present investigation responded differently to various concentration and combinations of hormones. Nodal segments were founds to be more suitable explants than seeds of this plant.  In vitro generation of callus was initiated from young nodal segments on MS medium supplemented with different concentrations of phytohormones. The callus initiation took place within 15-24 days of inoculation of nodal segments. The unorganized mass of callus tissues thus developed was hard and blackish. It was maintained on MS media by frequent subculturings after every 4-6 weeks. It grew profusely after a number of subculturings and possessed high capacity of growth. It was observed that BAP (2.5 mg/L) in combination with NAA (0.5 mg/L) was best for callus induction and establishment. Kn did not proved to be beneficial for producing callus in the present investigation. Nodal segments inoculated in the media supplemented with BAP: NAA: IAA (1:1: 0.2mgL-1) gave long multiple shoot .  These shoots were rooted in media without any growth regulators. Profuse rooting was seen in in vitro regenerated shoots grown in the media  supplemented with IBA (3.0mgL-1)  and when NAA also added in the media IBA: NAA (2: 0.2mgL-1),  rooting from in vitro  shoots  were observed. The results accomplished were found to be useful in developing a complete in vitro regeneration protocol towards the mass production of Butea monosperma, which may provide a basis for further genetic improvement that may prove its use as an alternative medicinal resource in commercial applications.