Rauvolfia Serpentina (Linn.) Benth. ex Kurz plants were collected from Western Ghats and established as ex situ collection in Bangalore under glass house and field conditions. From the above source plantlets were successfully regenerated from shoot cultures of Rauvolfia serpentina initiated from auxiliary meristems. MS medium containing 4.44 µM BA and 0.54 µM NAA resulted in best shoot proliferation. Low temperature storage of vitroplants appeared highly promising and plantlets were normal and healthy even after one year. Shoot tips and single nodal cuttings were used for in vitro multiplication. Excised shoots were rooted on half-strength MS supplemented with 1.0 mg/litre each of IBA and IAA. Within 3 weeks rooting was 100%. After acclimatization 95% of the plantlets survived.

Rauvolfia serpentina is an important medicinal plant because of the presence of reserpine and rescinnamine group of alkaloids used in allopathic systems for the treatment of hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and as a sedative tranquilizing agent. The root powder of Rauvolfia serpentina has been in use in India for at least 2,000 years to treat mental illness (Srivastava and Lambert, 1995). Reserpine influences the sympathetic nervous system and lowers blood pressure. In the Ayurvedic system of medicine, Rauvolfia serpentina root is a part of a complex formulation for treatment of insomnia, epilepsy, asthma, acute stomachache and painful delivery of child besides controlling high blood pressure and insanity (Trivedi, 1995). The plant is widely distributed in India but nowhere gregarious. Natural populations are encountered in widely separated localities having different habitat conditions. It grows as an under shrub in the sub-Himalayan region, Karnataka, Goa, Eastern and Western Ghats up to an altitude of 1,200 m (Anoymous, 1969).

The ex situ conservation of medicinal plants through in vitro studies is required to be taken up in this species. Sarkar et al. (1996) induced multiple shoots from nodal segments and shoot apices of R. serpentina in MS medium containing 1 mg/L benzyladenine (BA) and 0.1 mg/L naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA). Roy et al. (1995) produced multiple shoot buds from shoot tips and lateral buds when cultured on MS medium supplemented with BA (1.5 mg/L) + NAA (0.5 mg/L). Mukhopadhyay et al. (1991) obtained shoot response in the presence of 0.5 mg NAA/L and 2 mg BA/L, with 15-20 shoots arising from 1 shoot tip. Mass propagation in R. serpentina was reported by multiple shoot formation (Mathur et al., 1987). Poor seed viability and very low germination percentage (Mitra, 1976) are the constraints for large-scale cultivation of this species in the country. The objectives of the present study are to develop protocols for in vitro conservation of R. serpentina in the form of vitroplants using slow growth and bring out the dynamics.