Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

AN EFFICIENT MICROPROPAGATION PROTOCOL FOR AN ANTIDIABETIC NATURAL SWEETENER PLANT - STEVIA REBAUDIANA BERTONI

Naveen Kumar, Parveen Batra, Subhash Kajla and Vijay K. Chowdhury

Abstract

The experiments were conducted to study the effect of various concentrations of different growth regulators on in vitro shoot multiplication and growth, and to develop the micro propagation protocol for efficient and quick multiplication of Stevia rebaudiana - a medicinally important, zero-calorie value, anti-diabetic and sweet tasted herb. The shoot-tip and nodal segments were used as explants. The regeneration efficiency of nodal and shoot-tip explants were found best on MS medium supplemented with BAP (2.0 mg/L). The per cent explants regenerating shoots on nodal and shoot-tip explants were 90 % and 50 %, respectively. The average number of shoots was 2.0 and 3.2 from nodal and shoot-tip explants, respectively. The primary proliferated cultures were transferred on to various MS media supplemented with different concentration and combination of growth regulators for shoot multiplication. The best shoot multiplication medium was MS medium supplemented with BAP (0.3 mg/L) + Kinetin (0.3 mg/L), on which an average 50.2 number of shoots developed from nodal and shoot-tip explants after 40 days on culture medium. The multiple shoots were aseptically separated and transferred on to various rooting media. The frequency of root regeneration was 100 % on half MS medium containing IBA (0.5 mg/L). Regenerated plantlets were shifted to pots containing sterile soil and sand mixture (3:1) for hardening as well as acclimatization. The survival percentage of plants after hardening and transfer to potted soil was 80 %.