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Establishment of in
vitro fast-growing normal root culture of Vernonia
amygdalina - a potent African medicinal plant
M. M. Khalafalla1, H. M. Daffalla1,
H. A. El-Shemy2 and E. Abdellatef1*
1Commission
for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, National Centre
for Research, P. O. Box 2404, Khartoum, Sudan.
2Faculty
of Agriculture Research Park (FARP) and Department of
Biochemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University,
12613 Giza, Egypt.
*Correspondence author. E-mail:
eltayb@myway.com.
Accepted
10 August, 2009 |
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Fast-growing normal root culture of Vernonia amygdalina,
a potent African medicinal plant was established from leaf
explants of in vitro raised shoot induced from
the stem nodal segments on murashige and skoog (MS) medium
containing 0.5 mg l-1 6-benzylaminopurine (BA) in
combination with 0.5 mg l-1 naphthalene acetic
acid (NAA). In vitro raised plantlets were maintained
on MS agar medium and sub cultured at 4 weeks interval and
used as leaf explant source. Explants were cultured on
half-strength MS medium supplemented with different
concentrations of Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA),
indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and NAA. Basal medium
supplemented with IBA at 0.25 and 2.0 mg l-1 and
under 16 photoperiod condition favoured induction of the
longest root (2.7 ± 1.1 cm) and highest number of roots/explant
(38.3 ± 1.1) respectively. After 6 weeks well established
roots were separated. Fresh root tissue, in amount of a 100
mg were cultured in 50 ml full-strength MS liquid medium
supplemented with 2.0 mg l-1 IBA and under
continuous agitation (80 rpm). The biomass of root culture
was increased to 2.1949 g after 5 weeks of culture. The root
culture was maintained up to 6 weeks. The protocol developed
in this study provides a basis for adventitious root
induction and for further investigation of medicinally
active constituents of this elite medicinal plant.
Key
words:
Vernonia amygdalina, nodal segment, leaf explant,
root culture, medicinal plant, suspension culture. |
