Abstract

                                Herbal medicine has been the basis of treatment for various diseases in traditional systems like Ayurveda. An increase in demand of ayurveda leads to overexploitation of medicinally imporant plant species. Artemesia vulgaris is an herb with high medicinal value and contains compounds of commercial importance. With an increase in use, plants need to be produced on a large scale. Tissue culture serves as the best method for mass production of the plant via callus culture or production of secondary metabolites through development of suspension culture. A.vulgaris leaf explants were cultured in vitro in MS medium supplemented with 2, 4-D 3mg/l to produce 90% callus in 15 days. Suspension culture was initiated from well grown callus in MS media. Supplementation of the media with 15 mg/l methyl jasmonate and 15mg/l acetyl salicylic acid produced artemisinin in the culture filtrate as confirmed by LC-MS. The present study indicates the feasibility of production of secondary metabolites of commercial value from A. vulgaris through suspension culture.

Key words : Artemesia vulgaris, Suspension culture, Methyl jasmonate, Artemisinin