Somatic Embryogenesis from Winter Buds of 10-year-old Aralia elata

Abstract

The genus Aralia is composed of about 20 species of deciduous trees, shrubs, or herbs, many of which are found in North America, Asia and Australia. While many tree and shrub species are spiny, the herb species are either spiny or smooth stemmed. Some are used for ornamental purpose and wildlife food. Two North American species are used for medicine (Schopmeyer, 1974). A. cordata and A. elata are found in Korea (Lee, 1979). A. elata is distributed over a large geographic range in Korea, Japan, and China. This deciduous shrub is mainly growing in sunny areas and reaches 3–4 m in height. Fresh buds and leaves of the species have long been used as fresh edible vegetables due to their flavour and nutritional value (Kim, 1996). Although the roots and trunk bark have also been used for traditional folk medicine, the fresh buds and leaves are being used as a valuable crop to increase agricultural income sources. Commercial gathering of fresh buds and leaves from wild trees has caused erosion of the wild populations. Recently, the trees have been placed under intensive cultivation to meet the increasing commercial demand (Jhang et al., 1993). It is, therefore, necessary to maintain the continuous supply of the propagules for culture.