Abstract:
Moringa (Moringa stenopetala
Keywords/Phrases: ‘Bulla’, Moringa,Table sugar
) belongs to the family Moringaceae and grown for food,
pharmaceutical use and various purposes. In tissue culture, the major media
costcontribution isfrom agar and sucrose. Enset(‘bulla’) powder and table sugar are
cheap and easily available as gelling agents and carbon source, respectively. This study
was mainly undertaken to evaluate low cost alternative media gelling agent and carbon
source for micropropagation of moringa. Culture was initiated from shoot tips on MSbasal medium and multiplied using different concentrations of ‘bulla’(40g, 60g, 80g, and
100g), a mixture of agar and ‘bulla’ (1g+70g, 2g+60, 3g+50g and 4g+40g)as gelling
agent and same concentration of table sugar and sucrose(15g, 30g, 45g, and 60g) as
carbon source. The result showed significantly different in shoot initiation. The highest
percent of shoot initiation (100%) recorded in 60g, 80g and 100g ‘bulla’ media and nonsignificantly different with 40g ‘bulla’ (86.68%) but significantly different with liquid
medium (33.33%).However, there was a significant difference among ‘bulla’
concentrations in shoot multiplication and rooting. The highest mean number of shoots
per explants (6.946), shoot length (4.88) and leaf number (17.1) were obtained on medium
containing 80g‘bulla’ as alternative gelling agent. MS media supplemented with 30 g/l
sucrose showed the highest number of shoots (6.41),shoot length (6.41)andleaf number
(15)which was not significantly different from medium containing 30 g/l table sugar (6.35
shoots, 4.5cmshoot length and 15 leaves per shoot). The highest root number (9.09) was
observed on MS medium with 8 g/l agar but did not show significant difference with 2g
agar + 60g ‘bulla’ (8.76),60g ‘bulla’ (8.51)and 80g ‘bulla’ (8.41).However,the highest
root length (6.41) was recorded in media supplemented with 60g ‘bulla’.Based on the
result on all parameters, 80 g/l ‘bulla’ and 30g/l table sugar were found to be better.
Moreover, 70.97% of the media cost of gelling agent and 98% carbon source cost was
minimized by substituting 80 g/l ‘bulla ‘asa gelling agent and 30g table sugar ascarbon
source. During acclimatization, 83.34% plantlets were survived.
