In Vitro multiplication used in preserving the Arnica montana L. species in the Romanian Bistrita Mountains

Arnica montana is considered a rare and vulnerable species and is intensively harvested in Romania for medicinal aims. In the natural areas of the Romanian Bistrita Mountains, the preservation of the species is important by extending in this zone the results of the Conservation of Estern European Medicinal Plants –Arnica montana in Romania [3].

In the present paper we intend the possibility of using in vitro multiplication as a complementary component of the strategy to initiate and develop the species preservation in the mentioned area. Being an ever rarer species, we studied and elaborated diverse micropropagation techniques [1–2].

The final aim of the study is the reintroduction of the species in the montane grasslands where the species has been fully disappeared, and the introduction of new crops (genes) in small, endangered populations (to increase the heterozys), especially because the micropropagation techniques provides the advantage of a better control of the genetic material, and a relative large number of crops in a short period of time.

For the in vitro regeneration, the biological material used to initiate the experimental cultures, originates from Arnica montana plantlets resulted after the germination of seeds from a natural population in the aimed area. Shoot formation was induced from excised shoot tip explants, on the Murashige and Skoog (MS, 1962) multiplication medium, supplemented with BA (1mg/l) and ANA (0.1–0.3mg/l) and solidified with 0.8% agar, we obtained a number of 2–3 neoplantlets/explant. The multiplication of the buds was followed by the rooting phase, the neoplantlets being transferred for ex vitro adaptation, 75–80% being the survival ratio. The plants obtained will be transferred, after invigoration, to the experimental field from the natural habitat. The succession of the in situ preservation techniques and the ex situ ones will be accompanied by comparative phytochemical screening of the generatively obtained variants as well as by in vitro multiplication.

Acknowledgements: The work is sustained in the PNCDI-2 program financed by the Romanian Government – National R&D Agency

References: 1. Butiuc-Keul A.L., Deliu C., Clonal propagation of Arnica montana L., a medicinal plant, In Vitro Cell Dev. Biol. – Plant (2001), 37, 581–585.

2. Cassells A.C., Walsh C., Belin M., Cambornac M., Robin J.R., Lubrano C., Establishment of a plantation from micropropagated Arnica chamissonis a pharmaceutical substitute from the endangered A. montana, Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture (1999) 56, 139–144.

3. Wolfgang Kathe, Conservation of Estern – European Medicinal Plants –Arnica montana in Romania, Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (2006), 203–211.