African Journal of Plant Science Vol. 5(14), pp.

813-818, 27 November, 2011

Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJPS
DOI: 10.5897/AJPS11.093
ISSN 1996-0824 ©2011 Academic Journals

Full Length Research Paper

In vitro propagation of Ceropegia juncea Roxb

Krishnareddy P. V.1, Karuppusamy S.2 and Pullaiah T.1*
1
Department of Botany, Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anantapur‐515 003,
Andhra Pradesh, India.
2
Department of Botany, The Madura College, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India.
Accepted 21 October, 2011

The present study was conducted to establish a protocol for in vitro propagation of an endemic
medicinal plant Ceropegia juncea (Asclepiadaceae) from one month old aseptic seedling nodal
explants. The highest shoot multiplication rate of 20.65 ± 0.20 shoots/explant was achieved on
Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with BAP 8.87 M + TDZ 4.54 M. Excised shoots were
rooted on half strength MS medium with IBA 4.90 M + NAA 1.27 M. 78% of the rooted shoots survived
in the field.

Key words: Ceropegia juncea, in vitro propagation, endemic medicinal plant, nodal explants, multiple shoots.

INTRODUCTION

Ceropegia L. is old world tropical genus containing about toxicity studies (Adibatti et al., 1991). Although C. juncea
200 species which are distributed form South Africa is an important source of ayurvedic drug, but due to the
around the perimeter of the Indian Ocean to Australia lack of proper cultivation practice, low number of seed
(Bruyns, 2003). Of the 48 Ceropegia species found in formation, destruction of plant habitats and its removal is
India, 28 species are endemic to the Peninsular India leading to a progressive devastation of the species.
(Ahmedulla and Nayar, 1986). The existence of the Several workers have proposed micro-propagation
Ceropegia species has become restricted to remote protocols for Ceropegia spp. Multiple shoot regeneration
pockets in the Himalayas and the Western Ghats, two and alkaloid ceropegin accumulation in callus culture of
biodiversity hot spots. Regrettably, the Ceropegia genus C. juncea Roxb. was reported by Nikam and Savant
has now been added to the list of Indian endangered (2009). However our results were better than earlier
plants. Ceropegia juncea Roxb. (Asclepiadaceae) is an report for multiple shoot regeneration of C. juncea.
important medicinal herb, which is used as a source of
“Soma”, a plant drug of the ayurvedic medicine with a
wide variety of uses (Asolkar et al., 1992; Jagtap and MATERIALS AND METHODS
Singh, 1999). The fleshy stem is used as a raw material
The mature fruits of C. juncea were collected from Kalasamudram
for traditional and folk medicines for the treatments of forest of Kadiri in Anantapur District Andhra Pradesh. Fruits were
stomach and gastric disorders (Jain and Defillips, 1991). shade dried and seeds were collected for raising aseptic seedlings.
The alkaloid ceropegin was isolated and identified as The seeds of C. juncea were taken in 100 ml clean erlenmeyer
pyridone type alkaloid, which are relatively rare in nature flask then washed with two drops of liquid detergent (1% Tween-20)
(Adibatti et al., 1991). The total alkaloidal fraction for 20 min with constant shaking followed by running tap water for
exhibited promising hepatoprotective, antipyretic, half-an-hour, then repeated rinsing with millipore water. Further
operations were carried under aseptic conditions inside laminar air
analgesic, local anesthetic, anti-ulcer, mast-cell flow cabinet. Seeds were first washed with sterilized millipore water
stabilizing, tranquilising and hypotensive activities and and then subjected to 70% (v/v) ethyl alcohol treatment for 30 s and
was devoid of side effects as noted out by the sub-acute again washed with sterilized Millipore water followed by 20%
hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2) treatment for 6 min and later rinsed 5
times with sterilized Millipore water. The seeds were individually
sown in culture tubes containing half strength MS medium
(Murashige and Skoog, 1962) without hormones. Seedlings of 40
*Corresponding E-mail: pullaiah.thammineni@gmail.com. Tel:
days incubation were used as explants source.
0919440505664. Asceptic seedling explants such as shoot tip, node and
814 Afr. J. Plant Sci.

cotyledonary node were excised aseptically and placed singly in to be more effective (Table 1). Zeatin and 2-iP were
test tubes containing 15 ml of agarified MS medium fortified with 3% inferior to TDZ in terms of percentage of response, shoot
(w/v) sucrose with various concentrations of plant growth regulators
number and shoot length. Shoots along with basal callus
individually or in combination to obtain multiple shoot bud induction.
Elongated shoots were excised from culture and rooted on half formation was observed in all concentrations of TDZ
strength MS medium containing 2% sucrose and 0.6% phytoagar containing medium. BAP was found to be more effective
with different concentrations of NAA, IAA and IBA alone and in cytokinin when compared to other cytokinins in other
combination. The pH of media was adjusted to 5.8 before addition members of Asclepiadaceae such as Ceropegia spp.
of gelling agent and sterilized by autoclave at 121°C for 15 min (Patil, 1998).
under 15lbs pressure. All the cultures were incubated at 25 ± 2°C
2 After four weeks of incubation cultures were transferred
under a 16 h photoperiod (60 μ/E /s irradiance) provided by cool to fresh medium. The shoot number further increased in
white fluorescent tubes.
After 30 days plants with well developed roots were thoroughly
subsequent subcultures like other Asclepiadaceae
washed to remove the adhering gel and planted in 5 cm plastic members such as Gymnema sylvestre (Komalavalli and
cups containing sterilized soil rite mix covered with polythene bag Rao, 2000), Hemidesmus indicus (Sree Kumar et al.,
and incubated at 25 ± 2°C for 15 days. During this period liquid 2000) and Holostemma ada-kodien (Martin, 2002).
quarter strength MS basal nutrient medium devoid of sucrose was In number of cases cytokinin alone was effective for
provided instead of water until the new leaves developed. Later multiple shoot multiplication (Garland and Stoltz, 1981),
small perforations were made on the polythene bag to reduce the
relative humidity. Slowly the width of the holes was increased until
but for this species combination of different cytokinins
the relative humidity inside the polythene bag and outside the could improve further multiplication rate of shoots, the
chamber come to equal. After this conformity polythene bag was effect of different concentrations and combinations were
removed and the pots were directly exposed to the controlled studied.
temperature (25 ± 2°C). Slowly the pots were transferred to room Combination of BAP 8.87M + TDZ 4.54M in
temperature having diffuse light. And finally plants were shifted to
pots containing organic manure, garden soil and forest humus (1: 1: Ceropegia juncea produced maximum number of 20.65 
1). The pots were watered at a two‐day interval and were 0.20 shoots per explant and shoot length of 3.56  0.03
maintained in greenhouse. The survival rate was recorded one cm with 76% response (Table 1 and Figure 1C).
month after transfer to pots. For rooting shoots of 4 to 5 cm length were excised and
All experiments were repeated thrice with 15 replicates each. The transferred to half strength MS medium containing auxin
data was statistically analyzed using one-way analysis of variance for in vitro rooting. Half strength MS medium
(ANOVA), means were compared using the DMR test at the 0.05%
level of significance.
supplemented with auxins at different concentrations
showed varied effect on in vitro rooting (Table 2). Of the
three auxins tested, IBA 4.90M was most effective for
root induction. Combination of auxins were also tested.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Thin delicate roots were noticed when the medium was
supplemented with NAA and IAA. Half strength MS
Shoot regeneration efficiency of different explants was medium fortified with IBA 4.90M + NAA 1.27M was
analyzed by supplementing different concentrations of effective for better rooting in Ceropegia juncea and
cytokinin. Among three explants used for shoot induction, produced 8.23 ± 0.14 roots per explants and root length
nodal explants responded better when compared to shoot is 4.76 ± 0.14 cm (Figure 1D). The highest mean length
tip and cotyledonary node. Nodal explants have been of longest roots 5.17±0.11cm with the root number of
selected for micropropagation of Caralluma sarkariae 4.62±0.11 was recorded in IBA 4.90M + NAA 0.54M
(Sreelatha et al., 2008), Ceropegia intermedia media composition. Similarly IBA was rooting hormone in
(Karuppusamy et al., 2009), Ceropegia spiralis (Murthy et many Asclepiads such as Ceropegia bulbosa, Ceropegia
al., 2010) and Huernia hystrix (Amoo et al., 2009). bulbosa var. lushii, Ceropegia jainii (Patil, 1998),
Among the various concentrations of BAP, Kn, 2-iP, TDZ Ceropegia candelabrum (Beena et al., 2003), Decalepis
and Zeatin, Nodal explants showed better organogenic hamiltonii (Giridhar et al., 2004), Gymnema sylvestre
response than cotyledonary node and shoot tip explants, (Komalavalli and Rao, 2000), Hemidesmus indicus
best response was observed on BAP 8.87M (Table 1). (Sreekumar et al., 2000) and Holostemma ada-kodien
Maximum 6.37 ± 0.18 shoots/explant with 4.87 ± 0.12 cm (Martin, 2002).
of shoot length (Figure 1A). The effectiveness of BAP for The plantlets from in vitro conditions were transferred
bud multiplication has been reported in Caralluma to pots containing soil rite mixture and covered with
sarkariae (Sreelatha et al., 2008), Ceropegia intermedia polythene bags to maintain high rate of relative humidity
(Karuppusamy et al., 2009), Ceropegia spiralis (Murthy et and kept in the culture room conditions initially for two
al., 2010), Hemidesmus indicus (Raghuramulu, 2001) weeks. The hardened plants were transferred to earthen
and Sarcostemma intermedium (Prasad, 2004). The pots and kept under shade not exposing to directsunlight.
effect of various cytokinins from nodal explants in Then acclimatized plants were finally transferred to soil.
Ceropegia juncea is in the order of BAP > TDZ >2-iP > Nearly 78% plants of C. juncea were successfully
Kn > Zeatin Culturing of nodal and shoot tip explants on acclimatized to field conditions (Figure 1E).
Kn produced less number of shoots. But TDZ was found In conclusion, the outlined procedure offers a potential
 Krishnareddy et al. 815

Table 1. Effect of different concentrations of cytokinins alone and in combination on multiple shoot induction from nodal explants of Ceropegia
juncea cultured on MS medium.

Cytokinins (µM) No. of shoots/explants Shoot length (cm) Shoots with

Response± (%)
BAP Kn TDZ 2-iP Zeatin (mean±SE) (mean±SE) basal callus
Cytokinin free MS No response No response
ef f -
0.44 69 2.47±0.14 3.29±0.06
bc d +
4.44 62 5.12±0.11 4.02±0.07
a d +
8.87 79 6.37±0.18 4.07±0.12
13.3 73 5.89±0.21b 4.48±0.03c +

22.2 58 4.79±0.16c 4.34±0.08b ++

g f
0.46 40 1.69±0.09 3.29±0.09 -
4.65 46 1.83±0.12g 4.09±0.04d
-
f ef
6.07 53 2.07±0.06 3.42±0.05 -
e
9.29 63 2.94±0.13 3.54±0.07e +
23.2 58 2.31±0.19ef 2.14±0.03g +
0.22 46 1.23±0.11f 3.96±0.03bc -
2.27 57 2.73±0.18cd 3.79±0.06bc +
4.54 69 4.32±0.16b 5.21±0.13a +
9.29 82 5.73±0.12a 4.93±0.07b ++
c b
22.7 53 3.27±0.14 4.69±0.09 +
0.49 44 1.36±0.15f 0.92±0.03f -
4.90 68 2.83±0.14cd 2.17±0.62d -
9.80 76 3.53±0.19c 2.32±0.29c -
14.70 69 2.34±0.16e 3.19±0.23d +
f e
24.60 54 1.47±0.17 1.47±0.03 +
0.46 29 1.27±0.11f 0.43±0.09g +
4.56 42 2.09±0.15e 1.32±0.04e +
9.12 53 2.54±0.13cd 2.57±0.03b +
13.6 38 1.34±0.14f 1.86±0.04d +
22.8 34 1.17±0.11f 1.24±0.03e +
f d
8.87 0.46 49 5.42±0.17 3.04±0.07 +
e
8.87 2.32 52 7.39±0.15 3.17±0.12c +
8.87 4.62 69 9.97±0.12d 3.18±0.03c ++
8.87 9.32 57 4.69±0.09e 2.61±0.06e +
8.87 0.23 69 8.24±0.23d 2.97±0.06e +
8.87 2.27 64 18.32±0.16b 4.74±0.04a ++
8.87 4.54 76 20.65±0.20a 3.56±0.03bc +++
8.87 9.05 58 12.25±0.18c 4.32±0.04b ++
8.87 0.49 69 2.32±0.13g 3.05±0.04d -
8.87 2.46 63 6.82±0.19e 3.68±0.03bc +
e c
8.87 4.90 71 5.69±0.17 3.34±0.06 +
f e
8.87 9.80 32 3.71±0.15 2.89±0.04 +
g f
8.87 0.46 32 2.26±1.09 1.09±0.04 -
f e
8.87 2.28 57 4.27±2.89 2.89±0.05 +
e e
8.87 4.56 70 6.93±2.36 2.36±0.05 ++
f f
8.87 9.12 63 4.98±1.73 1.73±0.06 +
Values represent mean + standard error of 15 replicates per treatment in three repeated experiments. Means followed by the same letter not significantly
different by the Turkey test at 0.05% probability level; + Less, ++ Moderate, +++ Profuse, NR - No response.

system for conservation of C. juncea from various observed that BAP 8.87 M +TDZ 4.54 M on MS
seedling explants. In the present investigation it was medium is more effective for shoot multiplication. Half
816 Afr. J. Plant Sci.

a b c d

e
Figure 1. In vitro propagation of Ceropegia juncea Roxb. (a)Multiple shoots from nodal explants
cultured on MS medium supplemented with BAP 8.87 M; (b) nodal explants cultured on MS medium
supplemented with TDZ 4.54 M; (c) multiple shoots form nodal explants cultured on BAP 8.87 M +
TDZ 4.54 M; (d) In vitro rooting on half strength MS medium supplemented with IBA 4.90 M + NAA
1.27M; (e) acclimatized plant after 45 days.
 Krishnareddy et al. 817

Table 2. Effect of different auxin on rooting of Ceropegia juncea micro shoots cultured in ½MS medium after 30 days.

Auxins (µM) No. of roots/explant Length (cm) of Basal

Response (%)
IAA IBA NAA (mean±SE) roots(mean±SE) callusing

Auxin free ½ MS medium No rooting -- --

-
0.57 - NR NR -
2.85 24 0.83±0.11e 0.53±0.06e -
d d
5.71 52 1.32±0.13 1.39±0.11 -
d e
11.4 38 1.18±0.16 0.79±0.04 +
17.1 22 0.68±0.11e 0.43±0.05e +
cd d
0.49 78 3.27±0.18 1.21±0.15 -
2.46 76 5.17±0.09b 3.62±0.12b -
4.90 72 6.42±0.13a 2.35±0.11c -
9.80 54 5.93±0.16ab 2.93±0.12bc
c de
14.7 42 4.36±0.11 1.43±0.06 +
d e
0.54 22 1.23±0.15 1.04±0.04 -
2.69 35 1.39±0.17d 3.27±0.05b -
cd a
5.37 42 1.89±0.12 4.42±0.03 -
10.7 58 2.32±0.10d 2.79±0.10bc +
16.1 33 1.17±0.04de 1.96±0.09c ++
0.57 4.90 - NR NR -
1.43 4.90 35 3.56±0.16d 1.42±0.09c +
2.85 4.90 48 4.51±0.12c 1.94±0.10a +
4.28 4.90 42 2.89±0.14d 2.72±0.12d -
5.71 4.90 32 2.15±0.13e 2.16±0.06d -
bc c
4.90 0.54 78 4.62±0.11 5.17±0.11 -
4.90 1.27 63 8.23±0.12a 4.76±0.14a -
4.90 2.69 56 7.54±0.10b 4.12±0.05b -
4.90 3.96 32 2.73±0.09d 3.12±0.05c +
4.90 5.37 28 1.96±0.04f 2.73±0.11cd +
Values represent mean + standard error of 15 replicates per treatment in three repeated experiments. Means followed by the same letter
not significantly different by the Turkey test at 0.05% probability level; + Less, ++ moderate, +++ profuse, NR - No response.

strength MS medium supplemented with 4.90 M IBA + Huernia hystrix: an endangered medicinal and ornamental succulent.
Plant Cell Tiss. Org. Cult., 96: 273-278.
NAA 1.27 M is best for root induction. nd
Asolkar LV, Kakkar KK, Chakre OJ (1992). 2 supplement to the
Glossary of Indian Medicinal plants with Active Principle. Part 1 (A-
K), Publication and Information Directorate, CSIR, New Delhi, p.193.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT Beena MR, Martin KP, Kirti PB, Hariharan M (2003). Rapid in vitro
propagation of medicinally important Ceropegia candelabrum. Plant
Authors extend their gratitude to the University Grants Cell Tiss. Org. Cult., 72: 285-289.
Bruyns PV (2003). Three new succulent species of Apocynaceae
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form of Major Research Project to T. Pullaiah. Garland P, Stoltz LP (1981). Micropropagation of Pissardi plum. Ann.
Bot., 48: 387-389.
Giridhar P, Vinodkumar D, Obul Reddy B, Rajasekharan T (2004).
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