Low-temperature storage of Rauvolfia serpentina Benth. ex Kurz.: An endangered,endemic medicinal plant

On a standard shoot culture medium, nodal cultures of Sarpagandha (Rauvolfia serpentina) could be maintained for nine months at 25° C by replacing cotton plugs with polypropylene caps as enclosures for culture tubes. Low temperature incubation of in vitro cultures appeared highly promising because cultures exhibited normal health even after 15 months of storage at 15° C; while 10°C and 5°C were found deleterious to growth of the cultures of R. serpentina.