**4.5 Advantages of somaclonal variations**

Somaclonal variations help in crop improvement. In India, a somaclonal variant *Citronella java*, a medicinal plant that has been named as "Bio-13", produce yield increment by 37% oil content and 39% more citronellon (type of terpenoid that can be used in skin products) than the control plant. In US, a new somaclonal variant was developed and called as "Supertomatoes" where these clones capable in reducing shipping and processing costs. Other advantages of this technique are as following:

