Ex situ conservation of Aconitum heterophyllum Wall.—an endangered medicinal plant of the Himalaya through mass propagation and its effect on growth and alkaloid content Subedar Pandey, Rekha Kushwaha, Om Prakash, Amita Bhattacharya* and P. S. Ahuja Division of Biotechnology, Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur-176061, H. P., India Received 5 October 2004; Accepted 21 April 2005 Abstract The endangered alpine plant Aconitum heterophyllum was conserved under ex situ conditions (greenhouse and open) of Palampur by overcoming seed dormancy and plant establishment through hot water treatment (40 – 60 8C for 30–120 s) of seeds. High seed germination (88 and 76%) was obtained when seeds were treated with hot water at 45 and 50 8C for 90 s. Correlation studies also revealed that treatment enhanced vegetative growth and repro- ductive yield of the plants. The total alkaloid content of the roots and rhizomes of the plants growing under ex situ conditions was lower than the ones collected from the natural habitat in the 1-year-old plants. However, in the 2-year-old plants, it was almost at par with the ones collected from nature. The life cycle of the plants growing under ex situ conditions also did not vary largely from the plants growing under in situ conditions. Therefore, the pre- sent study indicates the successful adaptation of A. heterophyllum plants in conditions other than their natural habitat and hence its potential for sustainable commercialization. Keywords: aconitin; Aconitum heterophyllum; ex situ conservation; hot water treatment of seeds; seed germination; seedling growth Introduction Aconitum heterophyllum (family Ranunculaceae) is an herbaceous, perennial, rhizomatous plant (Nayar and Sastry, 1990) of the alpine and sub-alpine Himalayan regions (2500 – 4300 m asl). The roots and rhizome of this plant yield di-terpenoid alkaloids including aconitine (Khorana and Murthy, 1968; Mori et al., 1989) which is used in digestive tonics for children, curing dysentery, diarrhoea, vomiting, bilious complaints, periodic and intermittent fevers. The increasing demand for this compound in herbal medicines and health care com- pounds has led to over-harvesting of the tubers, resulting in rapid depletion of the natural stocks of this valuable plant (Pandey et al., 2000). As a consequence, this plant is now on the list of rare and threatened species. The depletion of native populations is further aggravated by poor regeneration of this plant in nature. Regeneration of A. heterophyllum in nature occurs through asexual and sexual means. Due to prevailing harsh climatic conditions, the flowering and fruiting pat- tern of this plant is erratic and limited numbers of viable seeds are produced, of which only a few germinate in an *Corresponding author. E-mail: amitabhatta@yahoo.co.uk q NIAB 2005 ISSN 1479-2621 Plant Genetic Resources 3(2); 127–135 DOI: 10.1079/PGR200570