Current evidence suggests that A. paniculata extract alone or in combination with A. senticosus extract may be more effective than placebo and may be an appropriate alternative treatment of uncomplicated acute upper respiratory tract infection.

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Mutational breeding was conducted using in vitro-grown shoot-tips of Centella asiatica (L.) Urban treated with colchicine (0.025-0.400% for 12-36 h) to induce polyploidy. Treated shoot-tips were grown on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 4.54 lM thidiazuron (TDZ), and regenerated plantlets were acclimatized and transferred to soil. Two months following transfer to ex vitro conditions, ploidy levels of regenerated plants were determined by flow cytometry and by determining chromosome counts. Treating shoot-tips with colchicine concentrations ranging from 0.050-0.200% for 12-24 h promoted induction of tetraploids. Morphological and growth characteristics and the triterpenoid contents of the polyploids were also measured. Tetraploid plants demonstrated significantly longer stomata and a higher stomatal index compared to those of the diploid control plants. Furthermore, a positive trend in both biomass and triterpenoid production was obtained with the tetraploid and mixoploid plants of C. asiatica.

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Multiple shoots of Curcuma longa were induced by culture of bud explants for 1 week in Murashige and Skoog (MS) liquid medium supplemented with 72.64 lM thidiazuron (TDZ) prior to culture on MS gelled medium without growth regulator for 8 weeks. The regeneration rate was up to 11.4 ± 1.7 shoots/explant. Rooting was spontaneous and the regenerated plants were successfully transferred to soil. This protocol can be an alternative for rapid micropropagation of C. longa used for phytomedicine raw material production.

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We established cell suspension cultures derived from leaf, stem, and root calli of Pueraria candollei var. candollei and P. candollei var. mirifica using liquid Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 0.56 lM 6-benzyladenine (BA) and 4.52 lM 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). Growth of the cell suspension cultures progressed to the stationary phase within 15-24 days. Methanolic extracts of cell suspension cultures of both varieties of P. candollei were analyzed using a validated HPLC protocol. All cell lines derived from leaf, stem, and root explants produced four major isoflavonoids: daidzein, daidzin, genistein, and genistin; these isoflavonoids were detected only in the roots of intact plants. Furthermore, the isoflavonoid contents of the cell suspension cultures were higher than those of intact plants. Thus, cell suspension culture of both varieties of P. candollei may be an effective tool for isoflavonoid production.

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