Authors : A. S. Pandey
Page Nos : 990-994
Description :
Chlorophytum (Safed Musli) is a medicinal plant that grows in dense forests. It belongs to Liliaceae, a family of 175 species distributed all over the world. Among the 13 species found in India. It is a medicinal plant used to overcome weakness. It is a well-known ayurvedic medicine rich in alkaloids, vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrate, steroids and polysaccharides. Dried roots of Chlorophytum contain 42% carbohydrate, 8–9% protein, 3–4% fiber and 2–17% saponin. Saponins are natural surfactants, or detergents, found in many plants.
The biotechnological research is multidisciplinary and acquires expertise of different areas. Research consists of characterization and testing of different proveniences and genotypes, development of suitable multiplication methods for plants, plant cells or tissues, either in the field, in micro propagation conditions or in bioreactors. The techniques of plant tissue culture offers means for mass multiplication, for biomass energy production as well as for the conservation of important, elite and rare species that are threatened in nature with danger of extinction . Exploitation of already existing variability in available germplasm is very important to identify superior genotype for local condition. Chlorophytum, although an important medicinal plants, but it has not received much attention from tissue culturist and only a few reports are available on in-vitro multiplication. In this study the effect of in-vitro regeneration on the saponin content was observed. The results of the study clearly demonstrates the reliability and enormous scope of in-vitro regeneration technology, but with due consideration for the specific genotype.
