ABSTRACT:
Ipomea turpethum a member of the morning glory family is perhaps one of the most underrated plants. Having a wide variety of uses it has an important place in traditional medicine. Its uses include treatment of fevers, edema, constipation, fistula, obesity etc. recent studies have given convincing proofs regarding activities of the plant that were earlier quite unknown. A few preclinical studies prove that Ipomea possess anti microbial, hepatoprotective, anti laxative, anti inflammatory, anti secretory, anti diarrhoeal and insecticidal properties. Due to rapid destruction of habitat they become extinct day by day. Among the different approaches, in vitro culture method provides new means of conserving and rapidly propagating valuable, rare and endangered medicinal plants .Evidently, there is no sufficient scientific studies that confirm the antimicrobial properties of this plants.The investigation is aimed to carry out callus induction and the antimicrobial activities of leaf and callus extracts of Ipomea turpethum. The leaf segments of Ipomea turpethum were cultured on MS medium supplemented with BAP, Kinetin and combination of both. Maximum callus was recorded on medium containing 2ppm BAP. The first callus induction was observed after two weeks of incubation. The antibacterial properties of leaf and callus extracts were screened against human pathogenic bacteria by well diffusion method. Among the extract tested, significant inhibitory activity was observed in ethanol extract of leaf callus, the aqueous extract did not show any significant activity.