Hedychium, a tropical to subtropical Asian genus with about 100 species,
has various medicinal and horticultural uses. There is a high rate of exploitation and
disappearance of its species from natural habitats. Additionally, habitat loss and natural
calamities should speed up the erosion of this plant species. Micropropagation is
considered a multiplication and conservation strategy for medicinal plants.
Micropropagation in Hedychium is very scanty, and protocols have been developed
only for less than 20 species so far. Hedychium coronarium and H. spicatum are wellstudied species in vitro among the micropropagated species. It is interesting that
micropropagations through protocorm-like bodies were achieved in H. coronarium.
The selection of explants and their axenic development in vitro is the major hurdle in
micropropagation. Cotyledonary nodes, shoot tip or shoot tip meristems from
axenically germinated seeds, rhizome buds, rhizome meristem, and zygotic embryos
were the explants commonly used for the micropropagation of Hedychium. Various in
vitro methods such as somatic embryogenesis, direct organogenesis and indirect
organogenesis, multiplication through microrhizome induction, and propagation
through protocorm-like bodies were frequently tried for the successful
micropropagation of this genus.
Keywords: Axenic culture, Callogenesis, Callus, Explant, Hedychium coronarium, H. flavum, H. forrestii, H. spicatum, Hormones, In vitro propagation, Meristem, Micropropagation, MS medium, Organogenesis, Plant growth regulators, Protocorm, Regeneration, Somatic embryogenesis, Tissue culture, Totipotency.
