Micropropagation of Mimusops hexandra Roxb and its Phytochemical Studies

Abstract

Medicinal plants have been used in healthcare since ancient time. Natural herbs work as a great link between the people and environment (Sofowora et al, 2013).Herbal drugs obtained from the plants are easily available, less expensive and efficient with nearly no side effects(Oyewole et al, 2018). The growing interest among people in production and utilization of herbal medicines provides great ways to discover new therapies. Sustainable human health can be achieved by using medicinal plants as they play vital role in field of medicine (Balick and Cox, 1997). A large number of plant extracts in form of decoctions or infusions are used by tribal people for treatment of several severe diseases (Petrovska, 2012). Medicinal plants also have been proved as the richest bio-resource of drugs for synthetic pharmaceutical entities (Ncube et al., 2008).Large number of research studies have been undergoing to verify efficiency of medicinal plants and to find new plant-based medicines. A detailed knowledge regarding the propagation and biochemical composition of the plant parts is needed to understand their potential completely. newline The plant family Sapotaceae includes species of herbs, shrubs andtrees containing potent drugs of therapeutic significance (Pennington, 1991; Tyagi, 2005). Various plants of this family such as Madhuca longifolia, Mimusops elengi, Manilkara zapota, Pouturia lucuma etc. are known to possess numerous biological properties and have huge history in the field of herbal treatments. The crude extracts obtained from M. longifolia and M. elengi lead to the isolation of drugs such as cocaine, codeine, digitoxin, quinine and morphine which are used to cure several diseasessuch as diabetes, ulcer, jaundice and digestive and respiratory disorders etc. (Pullaiah, 2002). A wide range of therapeutic constituents have been identified and isolated from plants of this family. Mimusops hexandra (Dubard) [Synonym: Manilkara hexandra (Roxb.)] is an another important medicinal plant belonging to this family.