Employment of In Vitro Technique to Propagate Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana) Plant

Abstract

Abstract The current study was conducted with aim to find an efficient simple protocol for propagation of stevia plant ( Stevia rebaudiana ) In Vitro. Shoot tips, leaves and stem nodes explants were sterilized with different concentrations of NaOCl (0.0, 2.0, 4.0 and 6% v/v) then cultured on MS medium supplemented with 30 g.l-1 sucrose. Results revealed that, no contamination was recorded when using 4.0 % and 6.0 % of NaOCl with (100% and 8.9%) survival at 4.0% and 6.0 % respectively. Moreover, combination of plant growth regulators which were used in this study, have been successfully optimized. However, best combination for number of shoots. explant-1 was found to be (0.4 BAP + 0.2 Kin mg.l-1) for shoot tips explants with an average of 16.44 while (2.0 BAP + 0.25 GA3 mg. l-1) produced maximum average of plant height from shoot tips reached 4.85 cm. For in vitro roots induction, maximum root induction, number and length of roots. Shootlets reached (93.3 %, 9.77 and 9.0 cm) respectively when cultured shootlets on MS medium supplemented with 2.0 mg.l-1 of IBA.