A Review on Clonal Propagation of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants through Stem Cuttings for Promoting their Cultivation and Conservation

Abstract

Plant based drugs are being popularized in recent past owing to their long-term benefits without causing side effects. Medicinal and aromatic plants are major sources of these drugs, whose quality is largely dependent on active ingredients present in them. Today alarge number of species are on the verge of extinction due to unscientific management practices, over-exploitation, destructive harvesting, poor seed set, low seed viability, pest and disease incidence etc. Hence, there is a great need for their conservation through cultivation for which standardization of propagation methodologiesis of prime importance. Multiplication of these species clonally through cuttings can make their cultivation economicby providing true to type plants that are known to have optimum levels of active ingredients. Rooting of stem cuttings is a crucial step in plant propagation and there is great variability in the rooting ability of different species. Even though propagation through cuttings appears to be the simplest of all methods, its success depends on a number of factors and the present review concerned highlighting their importance in the context of medicinal and aromatic plants multiplication.