Morphological Characterization and Tissue Culture of Medicinal Plant Aloe vera L.

The morphological characterization and micro propagation were carried out on Aloe vera (Aloe
barbadensis Miller) accessions collected from different locations in India were discussed in this book
chapter. The experiments were conducted on 12 Aloe accessions and the leaf length, width,
thickness, stem length and thickness were measured using verniercalipers. The plantlets were
chemically treated with 2.5% (w/v) of sodium hypochlorite which is an alternative safer surface
sterilization method for replacement of mercury chloride by using shoot tip as explants. The
sterilization results indicate that the highest number (93%) of viable explants (10) with the best
regeneration potential was in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium compared with other treatments.
Multiple shoots/explants (35) were found in MS medium containing 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP, 1.5
mgL-1; kinetin (0.5 mgL-1), indole-3-butyric acid (IBA, 0.2 mg L-1), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA, 0.1 mg L-
1), and naphthalene acetic acid (NAA, 0.2 mg L-1). Based on the shoot proliferation, a maximum
number (87.89%) of shoots obtained from the micro-shoot culture method and a maximum number
(91.12%) of roots were obtained on MS medium supplemented with NAA (0.2 mg L-1), IBA (0.2 mgL-1)
and IAA (0.1 mgL-1) which was found to be the best. The healthy rooted plantlets were successfully
transferred and obtained as the plants were of 100% survival. The regenerated plants were
morphologically similar to the mother plant.