High-frequency in vitro multiplication system for commercial propagation of pharmaceutically important Clitoria ternatea L.—A valuable medicinal plant

An efficient, rapid and reproducible plant regeneration protocol was successfully developed for Clitoria ternatea L. using cotyledonary node explants excised from 10 days old aseptic seedlings. Of the three different cytokinins—6-benzyl aminopurine (BAP), kinetin (KIN), thiadiazuran (TDZ) evaluated as supplements to Murashige and Skoog (MS) and Gamborg's (B5) media. BAP was most effective cytokinin for shoot proliferation. The highest frequency (100%) and the maximum number of shoots (10.1) were induced on MS medium supplemented with 1.5 mg/l BAP. Repeated subcultures of cotyledonary nodes for three months on the above medium enabled mass multiplication of shoots without any evidence of decline. The highest rooting (100%) and maximum number of roots (5.3) per shoot was obtained when shoots were dipped in indol-3-butyric acid (IBA) solution (500 mg/l) for 5 minutes and further subcultured on half-strength MS medium. Plantlets were successfully acclimatized in soilrite. Regenerated plants were grown normally in the field without showing any morphological variation. This cost effective protocol will help the mass multiplication of C. ternatea for commercial propagation of this valuable medicinal plant.

Research highlights▶ MS medium is superior to B5 for axillary shoot proliferation. ▶ BAP is most suitable cytokinin for high-frequency regeneration. ▶ Highest rooting was obtained when IBA pulse treatment given to microshoots. ▶ Micropropagated plants did not show any variation in morphological and growth characteristics.