Exploring Plant Tissue Culture in Ocimum basilicum L.

Abstract

Ocimum basilicum is a well-known, economically important therapeutic plant that belongs to the family Lamiaceae. Basil is marvelous in the environment as the complete plant has been used as a conventional remedy for domestic therapy against numerous illnesses since ancient times. O. basilicum exhibited interesting biological effects due to the presence of several bioactives such as eugenol, methyl eugenol, cineone and anthocyanins. O. basilicum possesses antimicrobial, antiinflammatory, hepatoprotective, hypoglycemic, immunomodulator, antiulcerogenic, antioxidant, chemomodulatory and larvicidal activities. The oil of this plant has been found to be valuable for the cure of wasp stings, snakebites, mental fatigue, and cold. The demand of this multipurpose medicinal plant is growing day by day due to its economic importance, pharmacological properties and its numerous uses in cooking and folk medicine. Thus seeing the exciting biological activities of O. basilicum, micropropagation could be a fascinating substitute for the production of this medicinal plant because numerous plantlets can be achieved in fewer times with the assurance of genetic stability. An overview of the current study showed the use of the plant tissue culture technique for micropropagation, which is very beneficial for duplicating and moderating the species, which are problematic to regenerate by conventional methods and save them from extinction.