Role of plant tissue culture in micropropagation, secondary metabolites production and conservation of some endangered medicinal crops

Tissue culture technology is potent and has opened extensive areas of research for micropropogation, secondary metabolite production and biodiversity conservation. Plant in vitro regeneration is a biotechnological tool that offers a tremendous potential solution for the propagation of endangered and superior genotypes of medicinal plants which could be released to their natural habitat or cultivated on a large scale for the pharmaceutical product of interest. Tissue culture protocols have been developed for a wide range of medicinal plants, which includes endangered, rare and threatened plant species. A review highlighting various in vitro protocols developed for some of the endangered medicinal species has been done to highlight the significance of plant tissue cuture in cases where regeneration through conventional methods is difficult to undertake and species are left with low population in the wild. Thus in vitro cell and tissue culture methodology is envisaged as a mean for germplasm conservation to ensure the survival of endangered plant species, rapid mass propagation for large scale re-vegetation and for enhancing the production of secondary metabolites.