India inherits a rich herbal heritage. Medicinal plants provide a bridge between the sustainable economic development, affordable health care and conservation of biodiversity. Mass extinction of plants have caused rapid loss of biodiversity which prompted to initiate a programme of plant tissue culture for the conservation, multiplication and utilization of rare important medicinal plants, for their sustainable use and development. The present work focuses on the development of in vitro techniques for rapid multiplication of two rare medicinal plants viz.: 1. Hemidesmus indicus (L.) Schult. 2. Rubia cordifolia L. These two plants are specially considered because of their extensive use in Ayurvedic pharmaceutical preparation. Additionally it deals with a) Collection, conservation and maintenance of germplasm of the plants b) To standerdize procedures for tissue culture. c) To develop protocols for rapid multiplication of both the plants. d) To isolate, identify and characterize active principles in the plants under study. e) To initiate hairy root cultures in Hemidesmus indicus using Agrobacterium rhizogenes and to know their ability to synthesize the secondary metabolites.
