551 © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018 M. S. Akhtar, M. K. Swamy (eds.), Anticancer Plants: Natural Products and Biotechnological Implements, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8064-7_23 S. Behera · S. Rath · S. K. Naik (*) Department of Botany, School of Life Sciences, Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, Odisha, India e-mail: sknuu@yahoo.com M. S. Akhtar Department of Botany, Gandhi Faiz-e-Aam College, Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India 23 Biotechnological Intervention Through Tissue Culture in Hedychium coronarium: A Potential Anticancer Plant Shashikanta Behera, Saktikanta Rath, Mohd Sayeed Akhtar, and Soumendra K. Naik Abstract Hedychium coronarium is a valuable medicinal plant and commonly known as butterfly ginger, belonging to family Zingiberaceae. It has enormous medicinal values in traditional system of medicine and also has the potential to be used in modern medicine. A number of bioactive compounds with different pharmaceu- tical properties including anticancer activity have already been isolated from this plant. Realizing its medicinal potential, there is an increasing demand for this plant species. This has exposed the plant to unsustainable harvesting. Thus the species requires conservation-friendly approaches in its use. Regeneration of plants with uniform biochemical and genetic makeup through plant tissue culture is vital for conservation of such plant species and sustainable development. Till date several tissue culture-mediated plant regeneration protocols and assessment of biochemical and clonal fidelity of the regenerated plants have been reported on H. coronarium. The aim of this chapter is to present a comprehensive account of the tissue culture-mediated biotechnological intervention in H. coronarium and also to summarize the different works on genetic diversity of this plant spe- cies for its conservation strategies. Keywords Anticancer properties · In vitro propagation · Medicinal plant · Regeneration · Somatic embryogenesis