Micropropagation of a medicinal herb, Tacca sp / Nurul Saidah Din

Tacca sp. is an interesting perennial herbaceous plant under the family Taccaceae. The genus Tacca is mainly distributed in the tropical region of Asia, the pacific island and Australia. Tacca sp. are gaining attention due to their medicinal properties. Tacca sp. propagate from seeds but the seed germination rate was quite low. Thus, tissue culture is believed to be the best option for rapid and mass production of Tacca sp. The objectives of this study are to investigate the callus production and phenotypic change in the cultured explant of Tacca sp. and to identify the suitable hormonal treatment of Murashige and Skoog's media with four different combination of plant growth regulators (Kn + 2.4-D, Kn + IAA, Kn + IBA, Kn + NAA). Standard micropropagation technique used were sterilization of explant, followed by inoculation of explant on media and incubation in 16:8 hours photoperiod at 26±2°C for 6 weeks. Observation was done every week for callus morphology. The diameter of callus and the number of shoot induction was calculated every week. The data collected were subjected to ANOVA by applying P<O.05 as the level of significance. All the explants treated showed successful callus formation. Yellow and friable callus were observed in the early stage of callus formation while the mature stage of callus showed light green and compact callus. The treatments used in this study showed no significant differences on the callus diameter (P=O.628) and shoot induction (P=0.438) of Tacca sp. Therefore, no best hormonal treatment of MS media recommended in this study.