In vitro PROPAGATION OF Cissampelos pareira Linn (DIYAMITHTHA): AN IMPORTANT MEDICINAL HERB

Cissampelos pareira Linn: a slender climbing plant of family Menispermaceae, is a highly valued medicinal species known as “Diyamiththa” in Sri Lanka. An in vitro establishment protocol was developed for this important medicinal herb in order to mass production of plantlets using nodal segments. Best surface sterilization procedure was tested using combinations of three Clorox concentrations (10%, 15%, and 20%) and two exposure time periods (10 min, 20 min). For inducing and multiplication of shoots, the established cultures were transferred to Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with various combinations and concentrations of kinetin (1.0, 1.5, 2.0(mgL-1) and 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) (1.0, 2.0(mgL-1)) with constant level of 1-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) (1.0 mgL-1). For root induction, micro-shoots were transferred to half strength MS medium with Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) (0.5 (mg/L) and four levels of Indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 (mgL-1). The study was carried out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 20 replicates. Results revealed that surface sterilization with 20% Clorox for 20 minutes showed significantly least contaminations (12.5%) (p = 0.05). Highest shoot proliferation rate (7.8) was observed in MS medium supplemented with 0.1mgL-1NAA, 2 mgL-1BAP and 2mgL-1 Kinetin after five weeks from culture initiation. The highest percentage of root formation, highest number of roots and highest length of roots were recorded in half strength MS medium with 0.5 mgL-1IAA and 1.0 mgL-1 IBA. Values were significantly higher than all other treatments (p = 0.05). Findings of the study can be used for commercial cultivation and further studies of Cissampelos pareira Linn.