Z.A.HaitherHrudey Chaprocar2024-08-052024-08-052002https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810212839Curcuma longa Linn. (Syn. C. domestica Val.), the turmeric is a herbaceous plant belonging to the family Zingiberaceae. The genus Curcuma consists of about 70 species. Turmeric of commerce is the boiled, dried, cleaned and polished rhizomes of C. longa plant. It has been an important commercial crop of India, Sri Lanke, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China and Indo-China. India occupies prime position in the world production of turmeric. Turmeric is one of the most ancient and important spices. It is used in dyeing cotton, wool and silk. In India, from the time immemorial, turmeric has been used as traditional medicine as a blood purifier, stomachic, tonic and also as an anti periodic alternative. Turmeric has been an item of export and foreign exchange earning for the producing countries. Turmeric is thus, medicinally and economically important due to the presence of curcumin and essential aromatic oils. Curcuma longa L. is a sterile triploid. For this reason its improvement by conventional methods (hybridization, etc.) is not possible. Under this situation for any improvement in this crop, in-vitro methods seems to be the only option. Since, conventional propagation through rhizomes has its own limitations with respect to poor multiplication rate, in-vitro mass propagation obviously has great potential for obtaining disease free true to the type planting material. Keeping this in mind the present investigation was planned with the objective to establish a protocol for rapid and large scale in-vitro clonal propagation of Curcuma longa. For the present investigation rhizome buds (3-7 mm) from young mother plants rhizomes were used as explants. Surface sterilization of the explant using 0.10% (w/v) mercuric chloride (HgCl₂) for 15 minutes followed by 3-4 times subsequent washing with sterile double distilled water proved to be the best. The sterilized rhizome buds were cultured aseptically on MS medium supplemented with 0.1 to 0.3mgl¹ BAP and 0.1 to 0.5 mgl¹ kinetin. Maximum number of shoots (7.34) was achieved on medium supplemented with 0.2 mg 1¹ BAP and 0.1 mgl kinetin. These proliferated buds were excised and sub cultured on the same medium with similar concentration of hormones. Up to third subculture number of shoots increased and the percentage of shooting reached upto 96.65%. MS medium in its full strength was found to be the most effective basal nutrient medium for shoot multiplication. The studies on sucrose concentration in the medium showed that 2% sucrose was essential for rapid multiplication of shoots. The effect of pH showed that shoot initiation and multiplication occurred even on acidic medium and highest rate of shoot multiplication (7.34) was obtained at pH 5.8. The effect of coconut milk was best at 10ml 100ml concentration. A regular subculture cycle at an interval of 5-6 weeks resulted in healthy cultures with high rate of shoot multiplication. Shootlets were rooted on half strength MS medium supplemented with 1.0 to 5.0 mgl¹ NAA and 0.1 to 0.5mg 1¹ BAP. Maximum percentage of rooting (95.53%) maximum number of roots (8.66) and maximum root length (4.80cm) were obtained from rooting medium containing 1.0mg 1¹ NAA and 0.2mg 1¹ BAP. Rooted plantlets were transferred to pots containing sand: soil: FYM in the ratio (1:1:1) and successfully acclimatized.EnglishThesis