ABSTRACT:
Andrographis paniculata Nees (Acanthaceae) commonly known as 'Kalmegh' is traditionally used medicinal plant. Andrographolide is a major diterpenoid in A. paniculata, which possess many medicinal properties like antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, anti-HIV and promising anticancer activity. It is used as a wonder drug in traditional Siddha and Ayurvedic systems of medicine as well as in tnbal medicine in India and other countries for multiple clinical applications. The objective of the present study was to determine the andrographolide contents in root cultures of A. paniculata. In the beginning aseptic plantlets induced from immature embryo of A paniculata seed, the roots of the plantlets were excised to 2.0 cm and then cultured on the MS liquid medium supplemented with different concentrations of growth regulators (IAA: indole-3-acetic acid, IBA: indole-3-butyric acid, NAA: naphthalene acid) and 30gl sucrose. As the cultures development, the NAA could promote the growth of adventitious roots as compared to IBA and IAA, which induced maximum number of roots (76.6 rootslexplants) and root length (4.12 cm) supplemented with 1.0 mgl' NAA after 30 days; with FW 718.2 mg and DW 87.8 mg and 12.1% dry matter content respectively, at the end of 4 weeks. The highest amount of andrographolide was observed in the medium with the addition of 1.0 mgl NAA on the week of four, as much as 0.60%. This indicated that the production of andrographolide by root culture of A. paniculata was feasible and had important application prospect.