American-Eurasian Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, 4(1): 65-69, 2010 ISSN 1995-0748 © 2010, American-Eurasian Network for Scientific Information This is a refereed journal and all articles are professionally screened and reviewed ORIGINAL ARTICLES 65 Simultaneous Shoot Regeneration and Rhizogenesis of Wedelia Chinensis for in Vitro Clonal Propagation 1 Bipasha Agarwala, 1 F.M. Safiul Azam, 2 Mst. Afsana Khatun, 1 Farhana Rahman and 1 Mohammed Rahmatullah 1 Department of Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering, University of Development Alternative, Dhanmondi, Dhaka, Bangladesh 2 Dept. of Pharmacy Lincoln College Mayang Plaza, Block A, No 1, Jalan SS 26/2, Taman Mayang Jaya, 47301, Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Bipasha Agarwala, F.M. Safiul Azam, Mst. Afsana Khatun, Farhana Rahman and Mohammed Rahmatullah: Simultaneous Shoot Regeneration and Rhizogenesis of Wedelia Chinensis for in Vitro Clonal Propagation: Am.-Eurasian J. Sustain. Agric., 4(1): 65-69, 2010 ABSTRACT This abstract describes a method for in vitro clonal propagation of Wedelia chinensis (Family: Asteraceae), a medicinal plant used by traditional medicinal practitioners of Bangladesh. This plant is used in the traditional medicinal system of Bangladesh for hepatic disorders, coughs, cephalagia, skin diseases, dyeing and promoting hair growth, cancer, and also during uterine hemorrhages and menorrhagia. Explants (shoot tips and nodes) from field grown plants were collected and treated with 0.1% HgCl 2 for surface sterilization. Sterile explants were cultured onto Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium containing different concentration of auxins, cytokinins and gibberellic acid. Tips were sprouted and regenerated on MS medium fortified with BAP (1.0 mg/l) and had an average length of 1.19 cm. [BAP (2.0 mg/l) + IAA (1.0 mg/l)] when used with MS medium showed the best response (100%) on shoot elongation. Simultaneous shooting and rhizogenesis (2.68 roots/shoot) was obtained when explants were cultured in [MS + BAP (1.0 mg/l) + NAA (1.5 mg/l)]. Shoot proliferation was obtained with profused lateral budding in [MS + BAP (1.5 mg/l) + GA 3 (0.5 mg/l)]. Auto-rooting (16 roots/shoot) with vigorous shoot growth was observed in the same medium. The rooted plantlets were successfully established in earthen potted media after proper hardening and acclimatization. After eight weeks of transplantation more than 70% plants survived and no morphological variation was observed with the donor plants. This method of clonal propagation could reduce the cost and time of plantlet production of this species. Key words: Bhringaraj, anti-hepatotoxicity, BAP + NAA, BAP + GA 3 Introduction Medicinal plants have a great importance due to their potential uses to treat diseases in traditional medicine and pharmaceutical industries. Wedelia chinensis (Family: Asteraceae) is one of them which is used by the traditional healers of Bangladesh for a long time. The plant is commonly known as ‘bhringaraj’ in Bengali. It is a scabrous procumbent perennial soft herb with high camphor like odor and has a gorgeous growth (Martin et al., 2003). The plant is reported to contain six new acylated eudesmanoids, germacrene, a-humulene, caryophyllene, squalene, phellandrene, p-cymene, sitosterol and wedelia-seco-kaurenolide (Rastogi and Mehrotra, 1993); leaves contain isoflavonoids and wedelolactone. This plant is considered to have different pharmacological properties such as antihepatotoxicity (Kirtikogi and Basu, 1975; Yang et al., 1987; Lin, et al., 1994); leaves are used in cough, cephalagia, alopecia and skin diseases (Chopra et al., 1956); dyeing hair and Corresponding Author: Mohammed Rahmatullah, Pro-Vice Chancellor University of Development Alternative House No. 78, Road No. 11A (new) Dhanmondi R/A, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh. Phone: 88-02-9136285: Fax: 88-02-8157339 Email: rahamatm@hotmail.com