Induced Caulogenesis in Long-term Callus Cultures of Rosrnarinus officinalis L

The callus formed in Rosmarinus officinalis L in association with shoot tip proliferation was isolated and subjected to different treatments for good growth. Two basal media, namely, Murashige and Skoog (MS) and Schenk and Hildebrdndt (SH) and their modifications supplemented with 0.25 mg I^-1 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP), 0.5 mg I^-1 indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and 1.0 mg I^-1 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) were used. Callus in MS medium, was compact and remained fresh and green upto 30 days but grew slowly. Whereas, in SH medium callus growth was rapid but it turned brown within 15 days.The browning of callus could be checked with the addition of 1500 mg I^-1 NH,NO, to the medium, in which callus grew 15 fold in fresh weight during 21 days and remained fresh upto 45 days of incubation.The shoot buds differentiated in this somatic callus with the addition of 0.5 mg I^-1 each of BAP, 2-isopentenyl adenine (2ip), IAA and 10 mg I^-1 gibberellic acid (GA₃), within 15 days of incubation provided the callus remained floating on the liquid medium. Histological investigations revealed both peripheral and occasionally internal differentiation of shoot buds. Differentiated shoot buds were proliferated, rooted and transplanted in the soil.