Tissue culture for the rapid clonal propagation of Aloe barbadensis Miller
2005
Marfori, E.C. | Malasa, A.B.,Philippines Univ. Los Banos, College, Laguna (Philippines). Inst. of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology
Aloe barbadensis (=Aloe vera), commonly known in the Philippines as `Sabila', is a perennial succulent plant widely used for medicine, cosmetics and food. The increasing demand for this plant requires that its propagation be done on a large scale. At present, it is vegetatively propagated using the suckers, which are formed only when the plant matures. This conventional method is very slow and could not meet the required number of planting materials needed to establish a large-scale plantation. An alternative propagation method is by tissue culture. This study was conducted to establish a protocol for the rapid clonal propagation of A. barbadensis through tissue culture. Nodal explants of A. barbadensis were placed in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium containing different levels of kinetin or 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) to induce multiple shoot formation. The best treatment for multiple shoot induction was 1 mg/L BAP, which produced an average of 11 shoots per explant in one month. Individual shoots from the multiple shoot clumps were taken and transferred in MS medium containing different levels of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) or alpha napthaleneacetic acid (NAA) for rooting. The best auxin for root formation was NAA, with an optimum concentration of 0.10 mg/L. Rooted plantlets were successfully transferred in the field. With an average of 11 shoots formed from one nodal explant per subculture every one month, an increase in propagation material from one sucker to over one million plantlets in one year can be projected using the above protocol.
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