Protocols for Micropropagation of Woody Trees and Fruits

CHAPTER 31
IN VITRO PROPAGATION OF NUTMEG, MYRISTICA
FRAGRANS HOUTT.
R.I. IYER
Department of Genetics, Dr. ALMPGIBMS, University of Madras
(Taramani campus), Chennai 600113, India
E-mail: riiyer@yahoo.co.in
1. INTRODUCTION
Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans Houtt.) is a tropical evergreen dioecious tree which is a
native of Molucca islands of Indonesia and is also now cultivated in Grenada. It
yields the spices, nutmeg (endosperm) and mace (the reddish aril), highly coveted
for their aromatic, culinary and medicinal properties. Nutmeg has a rich diversity
of phytochemicals (Mallavarapu & Ramesh, 1998). The essential oil is an active
ingredient of several pharmaceutical products and cosmetics. The medicinal value of
nutmeg in the treatment of several ailments ranging from nervous to digestive
disorders (Van Gils & Cox, 1994) has been recognized worldwide since ancient
times and it was regarded as a cure for plague. Recent studies relating to its
anti-bacterial (Rani & Khullar, 2004), anti-viral (Goncalves et al., 2005), anti-
cancer (Mahady et al., 2005), anti-proliferative (Lee et al., 2005), anti-oxidant
(Singh et al., 2005), hepatoprotective (Morita et al., 2003) and neuroprotective (Ban
et al., 2004) effects reveal a wide scope for its application in the health sector.
Myristica fragrans is of very limited geographical distribution owing to its
characteristic ecological requirements. The factors that restrict its propagation are
recalcitrant seeds, a long juvenile phase and scarcity of propagules (Nair & Ravindran,
1988). Though the development of in vitro technology for the propagation of nutmeg
is essential in view of its commercial importance and its immense potential as a
source for new leads for drugs there are very few reports available. Induction of
somatic embryogenesis in nutmeg has been achieved (Iyer et al., 2000). Metabolite
profiling of the embryogenic cultures revealed the presence of the phytochemicals
α & β-pinene, sabinene, myristicin, safrole, amphetamine derivatives and other
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S.M. Jain and H. Häggman (eds.), Protocols for Micropropagation of Woody Trees and Fruits, 335–344.
© 2007 Springer.