Akshitha et al.
Tamilnadu and other Southern states (Venkatesan
Materials and Methods
et al ., 2010). Due to the multifarious applications of
madhunashini , there is an increasing demand in the
Surface sterilization of pods
developing countries which warrants commercial
Immature pods were collected and first washed in
farming. For large scale commercial cultivation of
running tap water for one hour, then washed in
the crop, a propagation technique which is simple,
Tween 20 (4-5 drops in 100 ml) for 20 minutes and
economical and easy to handle on the commercial
washed with tap water thoroughly. Then, the pods
scale is necessary. Madhunashini multiplies through
were immersed in Bavistin (2 g l -1 ) for 30 minutes
seeds in its natural habitat. But there are problems
and rinsed with double distilled water 2-3 times.
like flower shedding, low fruit set and very short
The final surface sterilization was done in a laminar
span of seed viability (Chandrasekar et al ., 2003).
air flow cabinet with 0.2% HgCl for 10 minutes and
2
Vegetative propagation of madhunashini is also
then rinsed with sterile water 4-5 times to remove the
difficult due to poor and delayed rooting of
traces of HgCl 2 .
cuttings. To overcome this problem and large scale
production of planting material, tissue culture is one
Seed culture
of the useful tools. There are studies regarding tissue
Sterilized pods were cut open,s and seeds were taken
culture of madhunashini using different explants.
out (8-9 seeds per pod) and inoculated in the glass jars
However, no study yet on in vitro seed germination
containing media. MS (Murashige and Skoog) basal
using immature seeds as explants.
mediumsupplementedwith3%Sucroseand0.5%agar
wasusedinthestudy.Themediumwassupplemented
Table 1. Effect of cytokinins on shoot elongation and number of leaves of madhunashini explants at 2 and 4 weeks after
culture
Height of plantlet (mm)
Number of leaves
Growth regulators (mg l -1 )
2 weeks
4 weeks
2 weeks
4 weeks
Control
1.60c
3.30d
1.50b
3.50
BAP 0.5
19.74a
20.46a
2.00b
2.25
BAP 1.0
11.80ab
12.45abc
2.00b
2.50
BAP 1.5
11.10b
11.45bc
2.37ab
2.25
BAP 2.0
18.42ab
19.09ab
3.00a
3.00
Kn 0.5
10.82b
11.24bcd
1.62b
2.00
Kn 1.0
16.32ab
17.32abc
1.75b
2.25
Kn 1.5
13.80ab
14.48abc
1.83b
3.00
Kn 2.0
16.95ab
16.00abc
3.12a
3.87
BAP + Kn (1 + 1)
10.43b
10.95cd
1.75b
2.00
Grand mean
13.09
13.67
2.09
2.66
F – test
*
*
*
NS
CD @ 5%
8.40
8.06
0.95
-
SEm±
2.90
2.78
0.33
0.45
* Significant at 5%
NS- Non significant
890