Abstract
The demand for agar, thanks to its different uses, generates the need to look for alternative substances that replace it. This work studied the influence of four different additions of potato starch into agar media (T1 = 50%, T2 = 45%, T3 = 40% and T4 = 0%) on the growth and chemical composition of essential oils of lulo (Solanum quitoense) explants cultured in vitro. The lengths, fresh and dry biomass weights, and number of nodes of the lulo explants were selected as growth indices and compared against either viscosity of the modified media or extraction percentage and relative concentration of the main components in the essential oils. A higher statistic variability and amount, of the lengths, fresh biomass and number of nodes, were found for the explants cultured in modified agar media compared to those cultured in pure agar. In contrast, minimal variation in metabolite extractions and concentrations were obtained as a function of potato starch addition. Cyclotetradecane, neophytadiene, 1-hexadecene, phytol, oleamide and 3-octadecene were found as the main components of the essential oils by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). It was found that T1 was the treatment that yielded the best results in the analyzed variables. Key words: Solanum tuberosum starch, in vitro culture, micropropagation, partial substitution, Solanum quitoense in vitro essential oil, secondary metabolites.
Highlights
The current increase in the human population has been sustained due to the global expansion in agricultural production, provided mainly from the “green revolution”, which occurred during the second half of the last century, in developing countries
Paek et al (2005) stated that the most impact of the culture media in plant micropropagation should be observed on its primary and secondary metabolic routes. This was reinforced by the study of Pérez and Jiménez (2011), where the variations in the composition of secondary metabolites of micropropagated species were mainly attributed to the changes in the levels of growing regulators and carbon source and the concentrations of micro- and macronutrients available in the culture media. In this context the objective of the work was to study the effect of partial agar substitutions with potato starch to culture media, on both the growth and the secondary metabolites production of in vitro micropropagation of lulo (S. quitoense L.)
A decrease in media consistency and solidification was reported by Jain and Babbar (2011) and by Lucyszyn et al (2006) in the partial substitution of agar with guar gum, isubgol or xanthan, and with galactomannans, respectively
Summary
The current increase in the human population has been sustained due to the global expansion in agricultural production, provided mainly from the “green revolution”, which occurred during the second half of the last century, in developing countries. Modern agriculture requires pathogen-free seeds or propagules of highquality that must be readily obtained. One of the more efficient and practical techniques presently used to produce seedlings is plant cell/tissue culture (Martin et al, 2013). Due to the high-cost of the agar used
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