earticle

영어

The use of medicinal plants as a fundamental component of the health care system is one of the oldest and most assorted of the therapeutic systems in the world today. In the last decades, several plants have been confirmed to have chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic phytochemicals for various communicable and non-communicable diseases. More importantly, it is estimated that over 60% of the currently used drugs are from natural sources. Unfortunately, in the last few decades climate change has led to extreme environmental conditions that have negatively impacted the growth and biomass of most medicinal plants. Furthermore, these extreme environmental conditions have not only led to a reduction in some wild medicinal plant species population but also to complete extinction of some of the vital medicinal plant species. To mitigate this problem, basic in vitro propagation geared towards obtaining numerous, quality progeny and subsequent biomass increment of these medicinal plants was conducted during the Laboratory and herbology study at UST-KIOM campus. Different explants - callus, axillary buds, and somatic embryos were used during the in vitro propagation process. The in vitro propagated plants with increased biomass were then acclimatized to enhance physiological modification. This study therefore provides basic information on the in vitro propagation techniques and biomass increment for plants which are under threat of extinction and can be used as a basis upon which future researches can be conducted to enhance development of stable production and supply of highly competitive traditional medicine resources.