An Insight to Micropropagation of Freshwater Aquatic Medicinal Plants

Abstract

Freshwater aquatic plants include medicinal and ornamental species: have limited demand and rarely micropropagated. Most of them are found in Southeast Asian environments as amphibians or fully submerged or floating in lakes, streams, and watercourses that are ignored as weeds. These plants have never been central focuses and were not looked for characteristic proliferation. It is difficult to multiply these plants using traditional techniques through seeds or natural proliferation of rhizomes or cuttings by maintaining quality. Rare and fragmented but important information about micropropagation of these neglected plants has been discussed in this chapter. There are certain aquatic or semiaquatic medicinal plants for which no effort has been made to propagate in vitro. Contrarily, plants like water hyssop have extensive in vitro regeneration protocols due to its high demand. This study compares methodologies used by researchers to micropropagate these plants. It is concluded that this study will help in understanding and establishing systems for scientific propagation of these plants.