Evaluation of cyanoacrylate glues for making attached living‐leaves epidermis replicas and its scanning electron microscopy observations (evaluación de pegamentos de cianoacrilato para hacer réplicas epidérmicas en hojas vivas adheridas y su observación al MEB)

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AbstractSix brands of cyanoacrylate glue were tested to make inverse replicas of a leaf's epidermis. All of them gave satisfactory results for observations up to 8000x with a Philips XL‐20 scanning electron microscope (SEM), working at 10 kV. Genus of plants used were Xanthosoma sp., Psidium sp., Melicocca sp., Sorghum sp., and Stenotaphrum sp. The main limitations were that the epicuticular wax gets embedded within the glue. Spindle‐ or oval‐shaped artifacts are produced by stomatal apertures. This paper confirms previous findings related to the fact that cyanoacrylate glues are an alternative method for making fast, inexpensive, and sturdy epidermis replicas for scanning electron microscopy observation.