In Vitro Propagation of Medicinally Important Cassia Species – A Review

Medicinal plants are considered to be an important source of life-saving drugs for majority of the world's population. Recently there has been an increasing interest in the study of medicinal plants and their traditional use in primary healthcare. An ever-increasing demand of uniform medicinal plants and plant based medicines warrants their cloning through plant tissue culture (PTC) strategy. The biotechnological approaches are important to select, multiply and conserve the critical genotypes of medicinal plants. PTC techniques offer an integrated approach for the production of standardized quality phytopharmaceuticals through the mass production of consistent plant material. A variety of medicinal plants have been regenerated through in vitro techniques using various parts. This review is an attempt to highlight the current strategies available for in vitro propagation of medicinally important Cassia species. The genus Cassia is one of the most important genus of subfamily Caesalpinaceae (family Fabaceae), mostly distributed in the tropics and subtropics. It is comprised of about 600 species, most of them having medicinal values and used to cure a broad range of diseases, such as anaemia, bronchitis, cholera, eczema, jaundice, leprosy, liver diseases, scabies, splenic enlargement, typhoid, rheumatism, eye and skin diseases, cough, insomnia, headache, ophthalmia, constipation, hypertension and many more. Cassia spp. also possess anticancer, antidiabetic, antidiuretic, antihelminthic, anti-inflammatory, antigungal and purgative properties. The available literature on in vitro micropropagation of Cassia spp described the differential response to cytokinin and auxin treatment in the media for effective shoot regeneration and plantlet propagation. It was also found that the explants type played a specific role in morphogenesis and multiplication.