Conservation of some endangered and economically important medicinal plants of India – A review

India has a great wealth of medicinal plant biodiversity which is used by various tribal’s and local people to cure different ailments. Unchecked commercialization, habitat loss and habitat degradation have placed many medicinal plant species at a risk of extinction. Therefore there is an immense need for their conservation. There are two basic methods of biodiversity conservation: in situ (on site) and ex situ (off site), both are complementary to each other. In situ methods allow conservation to occur at gradual rate with natural evolutionary processes while ex situ conservation involves conservation outside the native habitat. Ex situ conservation via tissue culture technology helps in achieving the objective at a faster rate. The present paper discusses the various in vitro protocols developed for some of the selected endangered and economically important medicinal plants of India such as Tinospora cordifolia, Pterocarpus santalinus, Stevia rebaudiana and Tylophora indica.