Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2018) 7(6): 3473-3489 3473 Review Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.706.407 A Review on in vitro Culture of Aloe vera, Type of Explants and Impact of Growing Media and Growth Regulators Jugabrata Das 1* , Sunil Bora 2 , Manosh Das 3 and Purnima Pathak 4 1 College of Horticulture, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, India 2 Department of Horticulture, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, India 3 Tezpur University, Tezpur, Assam, India 4 College of Horticulture, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction The science and development of plant tissue culture is linked with the discovery of cell followed by propounding of cell theory. In 1839, Schleiden and Schwann proposed that cell is the basic unit of organisms and is capable of autonomy. Each cell has the ability to regenerate into whole plant and this potential of a cell to grow and divide in a self- regularity manner is known as totipotency, a term coined by Steward in 1968. Based on this premise, in 1902, a German physiologist, Gottlieb Haberlandt developed the concept of in vitro cell culture. Despite lack of success, Haberlandt made several predictions about the requirements in media in experimental conditions which could possibly induce cell division, proliferation and embryo induction. Haberlandt is thus regarded as father of tissue culture. Haberlandt presented the fundamental principles of plant tissue cultures which marked the commencement of golden era in the field of plant tissue culture. When Haberlandt (1902) attempted the first cell culture study, his intentions was to develop a International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 06 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Aloe vera is one of the oldest known medicinal plant gifted by nature which is often called as „Miracle plant‟ for its versatile properties. It has valuable medicinal benefits and is commercially used in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and food industries as nutraceuticals. In nature, Aloe vera is vegetatively propagated through suckers or lateral shoots which is a slow, expensive and low income practice. Sexual reproduction by seeds is also inefficient due to the presence of male sterility. Thus regeneration of Aloe vera in nature is too slow and insufficient to meet the industrial demand. Therefore, there is a need to develop a suitable and alternative method of in vitro propagation for rapid plant production of Aloe vera. However, source of explants, size, age, genotype, media composition, culture conditions and exudation of phenolic compound from explants and media discoloration greatly affect shoot regeneration from different genotypes of the same species. The technique of tissue and organ culture is used for rapid multiplication of plants and one of the major applications of tissue culture is micropropagation. Keywords Tissue culture, micropropagation, in vitro shoot induction, proliferation, rooting, growing media Accepted: 25 May 2018 Available Online: 10 June 2018 Article Info