Importance of in vitro methods in the propagation of nutraceutical plants- a mini review

Plants are major sources of natural products mainly used in pharmaceuticals and the food industry. Especially, nutraceuticals and medicinal plants are in great demand worldwide as these are used for food, flavorings, cosmetics, and medicinal purposes. Nowadays utilization of herbal drugs and natural products is increasing due to which economically important plant populations are reducing from the wild. Indiscriminate collection of several plants for different purposes has resulted in the extinction of several species and has pushed them in the endangered category. Therefore, in vitro culture techniques like micropropagation, callus cultures, secondary metabolite production etc. are applied for the large-scale production of plants producing active compounds. The advantage of in vitro propagation is that the plant material becomes continuously available for extraction of the desired compounds, avoiding the problems related to the collection, transport, and storage of plant products. Numerous species of nutraceutical interest like Catharanthus roseus, Mentha spp., Zingiber officinale, Ocimum basilicum, etc. have been micropropagated. In the present review, the neutraceuticals importance and in vitro methods applied for the propagation of neutraceutical important plants have been discussed