In Vitro Propagation of Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal

Abstract

Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal known as Ashwagandha is commonly used in traditional Indian medicine system. It possesses immense therapeutic value against a large number of ailments such as mental diseases, asthma, inflammation, arthritis, rheumatism, tuberculosis, and a variety of other diseases including cancer. The therapeutic potential of W. somnifera is due to the presence of secondary metabolites mainly, tropane alkaloids and withanolides (steroidal lactones). The growing realization of commercial value of the plant has initiated a new demand for in vitro propagation of elite chemotypes of Withania. Micropropagation which is an important tool for rapid multiplication requires optimization of number of factors such as nutrient medium, status of medium (solid and liquid), type of explant, and plant growth regulators. Similarly, an efficient and reproducible in vitro regeneration system which is a prerequisite for the development of genetic transformation protocol requires precise manipulation of various intrinsic and extrinsic factors.

In vitro arrow cane (Gynerium sagitatum Aubl.) multiplication in double phase medium

“…Several studies related to developing micropropagation strategies for arrow cane in order to produce massive plant material for planting commercial crops have been reported Suarez, 2009, Suarez et al, 2009;Rivera et al, 2009;Suarez et al, 2017); however, micropropagated plants results in higher costs than planting material from natural populations. Double phase medium system have been implemented to reduce costs of Vitis vinifera (Couselo et al, 2006), Ananas comosus and Whitania somnifera (Singh et al, 2016) micropropagated plants by means of reduced gelling agents, subculture, reagents and labor hours in the process. In the present research, double phase medium with continuous shoot growth in the same recipient was compared to conventional semisolid medium system for Gynerium sagitatum micropropagation with respect to multiplication rate and costs variables.…”

Addressing Challenges to Enhance the Bioactives ofWithania somniferathrough Organ, Tissue, and Cell Culture Based Approaches

“…Among various auxins employed for in vitro rooting, IBA (5–10  µ M) was found to be most suitable [18, 21, 33, 34]. Study conducted in author's laboratory also shows that IBA (10  µ M) is best suited for rooting both in terms of biomass and plant growth (Figure 1) [23]. IAA (2-3  µ M) alone or in combination with IBA has also been used for rooting [22, 35, 36].…”

“…BAP has also been used in combination with KN [48] and NAA [33, 49]. We have also standardized a regeneration protocol from leaf explant employing BAP (15  µ M) (Figure 2) [23]. In several reports, TDZ has been shown to have a role in regeneration [47, 50].…”

“…BAP (2–9 µ M) alone or in conjunction with IAA (2–11 µ M) has been commonly used for multiple shoot formation depending upon the nature of explant [ 16 , 18 , 21 , 22 ]. MS medium fortified with BAP (2.5–5 µ M) is being used for shoot proliferation in micropropagation protocol developed in our laboratory ( Figure 1 ) [ 23 ]. However, combinations of BAP and KN [ 24 ] and BAP and IBA [ 17 , 25 ] have also been tried for shoot formation and their multiplication.…”

Differential Gene Expression and Withanolides Biosynthesis During in vitro and ex vitro Growth of Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal

“…Currently, biotechnological tools are widely used for the conservation, in vivo and in vitro breeding, selection, and genetic and metabolic engineering of W. somnifera genotypes. Plant tissue culture has also shown a great potential for the rapid production of phytomedicines ( Singh et al, 2016 ). Several conventional and molecular experiments have been performed in W. somnifera for crop improvement, but none of them have used novel bioactive molecules to enhance growth and metabolite production in W. somnifera ( Poornima et al, 2019 ; Sharma et al, 2020 ; Srivastava and Sangwan, 2020 ; Thorat et al, 2021 ).…”