Centella asiatica also known as Gotu Kola is an important medicinal plant which contains several bioactive compounds such as triterpenoid saponins including asiaticoside, madecassoside, centelloside, asiatic acid, etc. In addition, Centella sp. contains other components including flavonoids, phytosterols, tannins, amino acids, sugars, etc. Due to its medicinal importance, this plant is being overexploited and it is essential to conserve this plant. In the present investigation, comparative study of different accessions of Centella asiatica for shoot multiplication in different media and growth hormones was performed. Shoot multiplication and phytocompounds production from different accessions is required to be assessed to choose an accession giving optimum production of phytocompounds. For this, different media containing different combinations of macro and micro nutrients have to be tested that influence the growth of the plant. Assessment of best culture media and concentrations of plant hormone for shoot culture are some of the critical culture conditions to achieve. So there is a need to optimise such conditions that will enhance the growth of the plant. For shoot culture, explant of different accession of Centella asiatica were inoculated in different media i.e. Murashige and Skoog (MS), Gamborg's B5 and Nitsch medium which were supplemented with standard concentrations of plant growth hormones. The cultures were incubated at 25 ± 2°C with photoperiod of 16 hours. After six week of incubation period, highest growth was found in MS media in all accessions. Further MS medium was supplemented with different combinations of growth hormones. After six week of incubation, MS medium supplemented with 1mg/l BAP showed the highest growth of the plant followed by 2mg/l BAP+0.5 NAA.

Due to the presence of several bioactive compounds, Centella asiatica (L.) is used in traditional medicine for the treatment of various ailments. This usage of plant and its products created a huge demand which required an alternative method of its commercial production so that the loss of natural plant and its genetic pool can be prevented. A different investigation using biotechnological methods provided a wealth of information to enhance the biomass as well as different bioactive compounds. In the present study, we focused and reported the effect of different nitrogen sources on shoot proliferation of Centella asiatica. Effect of malt extract as plant elicitor on asiaticoside production as well as fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profile was also worked out. Four different nitrogen sources i.e., NH 4 NO 3 (1.65 g/l), KNO 3 (0.8 g/l), NaNO 3 (1.65 g/l), Ca(NO 3 ) 2 (0.825 g/l) on five different accessions of Centella asiatica were tested and accession number 347492 (14.66 ± 2.4) provided maximum shoot proliferation with ammonium nitrate. RP-HPLC analysis of accession number 347492 revealed that malt extract as plant extract enhanced 6 times asiaticoside in comparison to standard conditions. GC-MS analysis of five different accessions of Centella asiatica concluded that this plant is rich in the content of Pentadecanoic acid, 9, 12 Octadecadienoic acid (Linoleic acid) and 9, 12, 15 Octadecatrienoic acid (Linolenic acid). Most potential fatty acid methyl esters containing plant accession number is 281374.

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