Original Articles
Bhupendra Koul and Owais Ahmad
Abstract
Artemisia absinthium L. (worm wood) is an aromatic, perennial, medicinal and industrially important herb belonging to the family Asteraceae (compositae). The plants are distributed throughout the temperate climate of northern hemisphere of the world including Asia, Europe and North America. The aerial parts of the herb contains bioactive compounds like thujone, thujyl-alchol, cadinene, phellandrene, pinene etc. which possess a number of biological activities including anti-fungal, anti-spasmodic, anti-bacterial, anti-cancer, anti-oxidant, anti-rheumatic, anti-helminthic, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-depressant, anti-parasitic, anti-septic, anti-malarial, antihepatotoxic, anti-viral, disinfectant and wound healing property. Nowadays, in vitro propagation is an essential tool of plant biotechnology by which endemic, endangered, medicinally and industrially important plants are propagated within short time. Due to the poor seed germination, A. absinthium may be propagated by tissue culture technique (in vitro culture). In the present study, the callus and shoot induction was optimized. For callus induction using leaf explant MS media supplemented with BAP (1.0 mg/l) + 2, 4-D (0.5 mg/l) was found to be optimal and for shoot induction MS media supplemented with BAP (3.5 mg/l) + 2, 4-D (0.5 mg/l) gave good response. The present study proposes a wide scope for multiple benefits of A. absinthum in the field of pharmaceuticals and many other industrial and economics ventures. A. absinthium has immense potential to act as panacea to several health related disorders and so its conservation through tissue culture before excessive exploitation is crucial.