Conservation of an Endangered Medicinal Forest Tree Oroxylum indicum (L) Kurz through in-vitro Micropropagation-A Review

The species Oroxylum indicum (L) Kurz (Bignoniaceae) is an important medicinal tree being rich in secondary metabolites, employed in various traditional medicinal systems from folk to modern medicine. All the plant parts (root, stem bark, seed, leaf and flower) of the species are known to possess bioactive compounds and the whole plant is over exploited by pharmaceutical industries. In view of the increased anthropogenic activities, destruction of natural habitat, these trees are being rapidly eroded from natural ecosystem. Thus the tree is becoming an endangered, vulnerable and will be facing extinction in near future and is being pushed into the red data book. Hence, there is an urgent need for the development of conservation methodologies through in-vitro culture techniques by employing embryo culture, mericlone technology and somatic embryogenesis etc., for large-scale production of this valuable medicinal tree. In the present review we made an attempt to compile and critically analyze the various reports on micro-propagation protocols for the conservation of this endangered valuable medicinal forest tree species.