Synthetic Seed Production as a Tool for the Conservation and Domestication of Celastrus paniculatus: A Rare Medicinal Plant

The seed oil of Celastrus paniculatus contains sesquiterpene alkaloids namely; celapagine,
celapanigine, celapanine and celastrol, used in traditional system of medicine for various disorders
and because of its high pharmaceutical value, plants are over exploited in natural habitats. Owing to
poor seed germination and lack of successful vegetative propagation methods, domestication and
commercial planting of this important medicinal plant species to meet the demand seems impossible.
Therefore, it is of high importance to develop a reliable and efficient in vitro method to produce black
oil plants for commercial use. In this study it was attempted to produce synthetic seeds of Celestrus
paniculatus via in vitro multiple shoot proliferation. Nodal segment explants were collected from
freshly emerged sprouts, surface sterilized and cultured in Murashige and Skoog medium
supplemented with different BAP and TDZ concentrations for shoot induction. The highest soot
proliferation rate; 25 shoot tips/explant was observed with 0.1 mg/L TDZ. Induced shoot tips were
used for synthetic seed production after encapsulating with BAP and NAA enriched sodium alginate.
Shoot tip encapsulated beads produced with 4% sodium alginate were firm, clear, round and uniform
in size and easy to handle. The influence of growth regulators (BAP and NAA) and storage period on
the germination of encapsulated shoot tips was studied to evaluate the success of encapsulated shoot
tips as a propagule. The beads germinated with 2 mg/L BAP and 0.2 mg/L NAA provided 80% in vitro
germination percentage. Shoot tips of synthetic seeds remained green and healthy after storage at
5°C for a period of 8 weeks. Current findings suggest that encapsulated micro shoots (synthetic
seeds) could be produced successfully, as the first step in domestication and conservation of
Celastrus paniculatus. Further studies required on rooting of micro shoots, acclimatization and
transferring of plantlets produced from synthetic seeds to in vivo conditions for domestication and
conservation purposes.