G. sylvestre plants were collected from ABS medicinal garden,Salem, Tamil Nadu and maintained in the Greenhouse, Departmentof Biotechnology, Periyar University, Salem 11. For shoot bud induc-tion, mature axillary node explants were collected from 3 months monthsold plants and were washed in running tap water. Explants werewashed with few drops of 10% (v/v) Tween-20 to remove the super-ficial dust particles including microbes. Then, they were surfacesterilized with 0.1% (w/v) mercuric chloride solution for 10 min followed by rinsing them for five times with sterile distilled water.Sterilized nodal explants were used for in vitro culture studies asdescribed below.