Using leaf explants of IN VITRO grown HYOSCYAMUS ALBUS and H. MUTICUS plantlets, hairy roots were induced following inoculation with AGROBACTERIUM RHIZOGENES strains A (4) and LBA-9402. The transformed roots, appearing after 14 - 17 days incubation on hormone-free MS medium containing 1 g/L cephalexin, were excised and maintained in the same medium. Ten randomly selected hairy root lines from each bacterial treatment of the two plant systems were compared for growth and alkaloid production in half-strength, hormone-free MS medium on 25 (th) day of culture. A. RHIZOGENES strain - A (4) induced hairy root lines of both H. ALBUS and H. MUTICUS were comparatively faster growing than those induced by strain LBA-9402. In contrast to earlier reports, some of the hairy root lines of H. ALBUS induced by A. RHIZOGENES strain A (4) were as fast growing as the hairy root lines of H. MUTICUS. The atropine yields of A (4) induced lines of H. ALBUS were significantly higher (3.5 fold) than the LBA-9402 induced lines. No such relationship between the bacterial strain and alkaloid productivity could, however, be obtained in case of hairy root lines of H. MUTICUS.

Transgenic hairy roots were induced in the leaves of Artemisia annua by treatment with the LBA 9402 strain of Agrobacterium rhizogenes. The axenic hairy root cultures were found to produce the sesquiterpenes artemisinic acid and arteannuin B. The hairy root cultures were observed to spontaneously regenerate into plantlets on solid hormone-free MS medium. The regenerated plants had phenotypic characteristics typical to the transformed plants. Among the plants of the age of one month in culture, the transgenic plant was bigger (2.643 g/plant) than the normal (0.856 g/plant). Both these kinds of in vitro plants carried sesquiterpenes-artemisinic acid and arteannuin B.

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