Growth Evaluation of In-Vitro Propagated Embryo of Morinda Citrifolia L. Seeds

Abstract

The dormant nature of Morinda citrifolia seeds is a limitation to its efficient in-vitro plantlet multiplication. Hence, the use of embryo culture for successful in-vitro culture initiation. Matured embryo of freshly collected noni seeds were cultured on Murashige and Skoog basal medium supplemented with kinetin (Kn) and Benzyl amino purine (BAP) in the range of A: control (no addition); B: 0.5 mg/l Kn+1.0 mg/l BAP; C: 1.0 mg/l Kn+2.0 mg/l Bap; D: 1.5 mg/l Kn+3.0 mg/l BAP and E: 2.0 mg/l Kn+4.0 mg/l BAP. The results at 4 weeks after inoculation (WAI) showed that germination was faster from medium A without hormone whereas highest percentage germination was obtained from both medium D and E with 80 %. Medium B and C had 65 % each while medium A gave the least (40
%). The development of the plantlets showed that longest shoot (3.9 cm) from medium A was closely related to 3.58 cm from Medium B while root lengths (2.28 cm) and number of adventitious roots (26) from medium A were significantly higher than other media at 12 WAI. Highest number of nodes (2.25) obtained from medium D was comparable to Media C and B while medium A had the least at 12 WAI. Number of leaves obtained was similar between the media at 12 WAI. These results indicated that using embryo is reliable for fast in-vitro propagation and shoot development of noni plant with optimum cytokinins (0.5/1.0 mg/l Kn/BAP) application.

Keywords: Culture initiation, Cytokinins, Embryo culture, Plantlet, Shoot development