culture was incubated either in dark or light and was shaken at 100 rpm the basic culture medium was prepared from stock solutions and then supplemented with various combinations of plant growth regulators vitamins and sugars as required myoinositol solidifying agent agar and carbohydrates were added to the media during preparation as required culture media were made up using double distilled water heat stable plant growth regulators as well as other compounds were added before autoclaving while any heat labile compounds were added to the lukewarm media just prior to pouring into sterile plates all media were adjusted to ph 5 8 using 1m naoh or 1m hcl prior to autoclaving in the case of solid media 0 9 agar was added before adjustment of the ph 3 sucrose was added to the media adjustments were made to the media as required depending upon the plant and cell type grown callus cultures were established by culturing explants in 90 mm u00d7 15 mm sterile plastic petri dishes containing ms medium solidified with 0 9 agar and containing 3 mg l 2 4 dichlorophenoxyacetic acid 2 4 d the petri dishes were sealed using parafilm to reduce water loss suspension cultures were initiated by placing 05 1 0 g fresh weight of callus material into sterile 250 ml erlenmeyer shake flasks containing 50 ml of ms medium the flasks were sealed with sterile aluminium foil and placed on rotary shakers at 100 rpm the mucilaginous material was found to be effective in controlling.