&amp;lt;i&amp;gt;In Situ&amp;lt;/i&amp;gt; Clonal Propagation of Stevia (&amp;lt;i&amp;gt;Stevia rebaudiana&amp;lt;/i&amp;gt;, Bertoni) Using Hormones

Elmer V. Galo

doi:10.4236/ajps.2019.1010126

Abstract

The sweet taste of Stevia leaves makes it a potential substitute for table sugar which can be used to sweeten foods and beverages. However, the limited planting materials become a constrained to large production; hence the experiment aims to investigate the different part and methods of propagation for stevia specifically use of different rooting hormones. The experiment was laid out in 3 × 4 factorial arranged in Randomized Complete Block Design. It consists of 3 types of cutting (shoot tips, intermediate stem and basal stem part) and four kinds of commercial hormones (miracle gro, rootech gel, NAA and control). Results showed that the highest percentage survival of stevia was obtained from shoot tips (93.92%) which differed statistically from those intermediate (91.00%) and basal stem cuttings (85.51%). On the other hand, basal stem cutting significantly has the lowest percent survival. Results revealed that shoot tip cuttings treated with Rootech Gel developed roots early (6.92 days), with most number of roots (13.70), longer roots (3.33 cm), and 96.38% survival.

Highlights

Stevia rebaudiana (Bert.) is an emerging sugar alternative and anti-diabetic plant in the Philippines
Results showed that the highest percentage survival of stevia was obtained from shoot tips (93.92%) which differed statistically from those intermediate (91.00%) and basal stem cuttings (85.51%)
It revealed that shoot tip of stem cuttings of stevia highly exhibited the earliest rooting of 7.93 days which differed significantly from the intermediate stem cuttings which took 8.51 days while the basal stem cuttings had delayed rooting of 9.14 days

Summary

Introduction

Stevia rebaudiana (Bert.) is an emerging sugar alternative and anti-diabetic plant in the Philippines. It is commonly known as “honey leaf” in Indian market [1], ‘‘sweet leaf” in the USA, ‘‘sweet honey leaf” in Australia, and ‘‘sweet herb in Paraguay [2]. This is beneficial to about 20 percent of the Philippines population who have diabetes [4]. The sweet taste of Stevia leaves makes it a potential substitute for table sugar. Propagation by cuttings utilizes only the shoot tips while the lower parts of the stem are not used as planting materials. This limits the number of explants obtained from a single plant; a suitable alternative method for plant production is to utilize stem cuttings from the lower parts of the stem as planting materials to obtain fast production of rooted stem cuttings or planting material

Materials and Methods

Results and Discussion

Conclusions