Preface

Micropropagation of medicinal plants has become vital in providing high yielding elite genotypes for pharmaceutical purposes, as well as in producing high quality plantlets for conservation. Due to excess demand and injudicious harvesting, deforestation, climate change, pollution, urbanization, and natural calamities, many medicinal plants are under threat in their natural habitat. Variations in different biotic and abiotic environmental conditions severely limit the conventional method of propagation. As a result, micropropagation techniques may provide a better alternative and make it possible for the rapid multiplication of medicinal plants. It plays a significant role in increasing the production of disease-free plants, regardless of the season, with the goal of restoring these plants in their natural habitat and conserving them. These plants also serve as another source of raw materials used for commercial purposes, reducing the stress on plants growing in natural habitats. Tissue culture protocols for a wide variety of medicinal plants have been developed over the years. It also allows the modification and regulation of their genetic information with the goal of producing valuable phytoconstituents in greater quantities or with better properties, or both.

The present book gives the protocols for micropropagation of more than 40 species of medicinal plants. This book smartly combines the scientific principles with the state of the art in tissue culture techniques presented by experienced and authors. I wish to express my gratitude to all the authors who contributed to the review chapters and research papers. I thank them for their cooperation and erudition. I hope that this will be a source book for the cultivation and improvement of medicinal plants. I request that readers give their suggestions to improve in future editions.