Plant Regeneration from the Nodal Part of Citrullus Colocynthis (l.) Schard

Citrullus colocynthis, belonging to the family of cucurbitaceae. It is a xerophytic desert plant, widely used for its medicinal purpose. In tribal areas it is used for the treatment of constipation, oedema, bacterial infection, cancer, diabetes and abortifacient. Present study is based on developing a protocol for plantlet regeneration from the nodal segment. The sterilized explants were inoculated in different concentrations of cytokinins and auxins. Among the various treatments, MS (1962) medium supplemented with BAP (2.0mg/l) gave the best shooting culture establishment. For shoot elongation MS medium supplemented with IBA (0.1 mg/l) was found to be best. In vitro elongated shoots rooted on MS medium supplemented with IBA (0.1 mg/l). The plantlets were hardened, acclimatized and transplanted in the field, where they showed 60% survival rate. INTRODUCTION: Cucurbitaceae family contains about 90 genera and over 700 species of economic importance . Cucurbits are dietary vegetable, which is primarily comprised species consumed as food worldwide. Cucurbitis are excellent fruit in nature that have composition of all the essential constituents required for good health to humans 2, . It is typically distributed in the tropical countries poorly represented in temperate regions. It is a wide spread annual uncultivated, procumbent herb having small yellow flowers. The fruit is very bitter. The bitter taste is caused by high concentration of Cucurbitacin E. glycoside or colocynthine . It grows fast in the sandy soils and widespread in different parts of Saudi Arabia. This plant is used as anticancer agent in many drugs. It is also used as anti-pyometra in animals . Organogenesis, micropropagation and chemical analysis also performed earlier by various workers 6, 7, . The present study deals with the establishment of protocol for plant regeneration from the nodal segment of Citrullus colocynthis. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Plant Material: Nodal segments of the Citrullus colocynthis were collected from mature plant growing in the campus of Rajasthan University, Jaipur, India. The nodal parts collected were ranging from 2 to 3 cm in size. Surface Sterilization: Surface sterilization process is to be followed in various steps so as to avoid contamination in the culture conditions. Nodal segments were then excised and washed thoroughly in the running tap water for 5 to 10 min under aseptic conditions. Explants were surface sterilized with 70% of ethyl alcohol (v/v) for 1to 5 min. Followed by dipping in 0.1% fresh aqueous mercuric chloride (w/v) solution for 1 to 2 min, subsequently washed