10.22376/ijpbs.2019.10.1.p1-12 Volume 2 Issue 4 2011 (October - December) Micropropagation of lessThan i greaterThan Vernonia anthelmintica lessThan /i greaterThan , an important medicinal and under exploited oil-yielding herb of asteraceae has been achieved through seedling cotyledonary node explants. The explants if reared on Murashige and Skoog's (MS) medium supplemented with 0.1, 1, 5 and 10 µM levels of cytokinins, viz. N lessThan sup greaterThan 6 lessThan /sup greaterThan -benzyladenine (BA), kinetin (Kn), N lessThan sup greaterThan 6 lessThan /sup greaterThan -(2-isopentenyl) adenine (2iP) either alone or in combinations with auxins lessThan i greaterThan i.e. lessThan /i greaterThan α-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) or an adjuvant like adenine sulphate (Ad.S.), or coconut water (CW) induced direct multiple shoots in their axils. The best response was evoked on 5 µM BA in combination with 5% CW added to MS medium where cent percent cotyledonary nodes differentiated an average of 4.5±0.7 shoots per explant. The excised shoots rooted best in half strength MS basal medium with 2% sucrose. Nearly 75% shoots organized an average of 1.9±0.5 roots per shoot within 12 days. An early induction of i lessThan i greaterThan n vitro lessThan /i greaterThan flowering has also been noticed in 33.3% cultures with 5% CW and 5 µM BA within six weeks. The tissue culture derived plantlets were successfully acclimatized to field with 60% survival. Thus, for the first time, a reliable method for efficient regeneration and achieving early flowering and fruiting, in an economically important crop has been developed. Shahnaz Subhan And Veena Agrawal cotyledonary node, in vitro flowering, multiple shoots, plantlet, Vernonia anthelmintica 231-241