Production and Enhancement of Anthocyanin Pigment in Callus Cultures of Salix tetrasperma Roxb

By : Afsheen Shahid, Mohammad Anis

Page No: 9-14

Abstract
Anthocyanins are an important group of plant flavonoids which are responsible for imparting pink, red and blue coloration in a large number fruits, flowers and other plant parts providing an attractive option for colouring the processed food since long. The present study describes production of callus cultures from young inflorescence explants of Salix tetrasperma Roxb. It is a plant of medicinal importance and also a preferred tree species for biofuel plantations. 1.0 ?M 2,4-D found to be best for callus development and proliferation with 100% response after 4 weeks. Of the several concentrations of different external stimuli tested, 6-benzyladenine (4 ?M) produced the best results with 2 fold increase in anthocyanin accumulation in comparison to control. Cadmium Chloride (CdCl2 ) treatment was found to exert a negative effect on biomass production with a nonsignificant increase in pigment production. The harvesting time of 4 weeks was found to be the optimum for highest pigment recovery beyond which the cells of callus mass start dying due to the browning effect of oxidized phenols.

Authors :
Afsheen Shahid and Mohammad Anis : Plant Biotechnology Laboratory, Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh, 202-002, India