ESTABLISHMENT OF IN VITRO CULTURES OF VALUABLE MEDICINAL PLANT VALERIANA JATAMANSI JONES, ITS CONSERVATION AND PRODUCTION OF BIOACTIVE METABOLITESSushma Pandey and Bijaya PantAbstract Valeriana jatamansi Jones is a perennial herb, belonging to the family Valerianaceae. The pharamaceutical significance of this plant is mainly because of the rhizomes and roots. The species has become threatened in its natural habitats due to exploitation of its rhizomes for drug preparation in pharmaceutical industries. In vitro plant cell and tissue culture would not only surmount the limitations of vegetative propagation but also can hasten the production of clonal material for field planting and production of unlimited amount of secondary metabolites. In the present study, MS medium supplemented with 2 mg/L of Benzyl amino purine (BAP) produced maximum shoot bud regeneration with shoot numbers (6), shoot lengths (3 cm), root numbers (6.3), and root length (1.4 cm). Methanolic in vitro extracts of V. jatamansi resulted in the highest phenolic content (55± 1.00 mg GAE/g) compared to the wild sample (49±1.00 GAE/g) and the highest flavanoid content (219±1.00 mg QE/g) as compared to the wild (124±1.00 mg QE)/g). DPPH activity was also highest in in vitro extracts (84.33±0.577%) as compared to the wild (78.33±0.569%). GC-MS profiling of the wild plant extracts revealed the presence of important bioactive compounds including valeric anhydride, valerenol. A reproducible protocol was established using shoot bud explants which will be benefitted towards utilization of natural resources for the production of pharmaceutically important compounds at a large scale from V.jatamansi. |