Abstract

Nothapodytes nimmoniana J. Graham is an endangered medicinal plant species found in Western Ghats of Maharashtra, supposed to be the natural source of Camptothecin (CPT) an anticancer drug. Due to high utilization and export without giving many efforts on its conservation along with constraints of low seed germination, plant is said to be near to extinct.Thus Somatic embryogenesis is one of the methods to grow such plants in lab to field conditions. Somatic embryo formation will provide the information about the development and germination events and also aid in propagation of this species. Somatic embryogenesis was induced by leaf explants TDZ (Thidiazuron) plant hormone in various concentrations. But it was seen that TDZ (1mg/L) in Murashige and Skoog Basal salt media shows faster and better somatic embryogenesis as compare to other concentrations used with average induction of 60%.In histological examination of somatic embryos of N. nimmoniana various stages of somatic embryos were seen including globular, post globular, heart shape, torpedo shape etc. The HPLC analysis confirms the presence of CPT in invitro regenerated somatic embryos which were found to be 1.74058±0.08064 µg/g.

Keywords

Nothapodytes nimmoniana J graham, TDZ, somatic embryogenesis, camptothecin; histology, HPLC, micropropagation, cancer treatment, antitumor activity, somatic embryogenesis, full-grown somatic embryos, standard calibration graph, endangered plant, parental characters, bio reactor