Macropropagation of operculina turpethum (tihudi), a red-listed medicinal plant of odisha

Operculina turpethum is a Red-Listed (vulnerable category) medicinal plant distributed sporadically in Odisha. Propagation of ‘tihudi’ through seeds suffer from the problems like poor seed viabil¬ity, low percentage of germination. As an alternative, it can be mass propagated through vine-nodal cuttings. The cuttings were treated with two types of auxin combinations along with control. Maximum rooting, growth and development were influenced by the treatment T1- NAA (3000 ppm) + IBA (2000 ppm). The nodal cuttings with single node plus single leaf (C1) was found to be the best for vegetative propagation where the major outcomes like rooting percentage (79.91±1.08), root number (7.00±1.56), root length (10.61±1.63 cm), new flushes (3.00±0.94), survivability percentage (81.48±0.01) were obtained. Through utilization of this technique, mass production of quality planting materials of this valuable but vulnerable medicinal plant can be achieved.