In vitro propagation of an endangered medicinal timber species Khaya grandifoliola C. Dc.

Abstract

The over exploitation of African mahogany in tropical forest has threatened the genetic base of this useful timber and medicinal tree species and as such, an experiment was conducted on the in vitro culture of Khaya grandifoliola, an endangered tree species commonly found in the high forest zones of West Africa to explore its potential for micropropagation. Embryos excised from matured seeds were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), benzyl amino purine (BAP) and kinetine (KIN) at different concentrations. The optimum result in relation to shoot length, root length, number of nodes and number of root was obtained on MS medium supplemented with 1.0 mg/L BAP + 0.01 mg/L NAA.

Key words: Khaya grandifoliola, African mahogany, in vitro culture, medium, embryo, plantlets.