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 induction, mature axillary node explants were collected from 3 month sold plants and were washed in running tap water. Explants were washed with few drops of 10% (v/v) Tween-20 to remove the superficial 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.