Growth and Development of Stevia Cuttings During Propagation with Hormones in Different Months of the Year.

Ma Claudia Castañeda-Saucedo,Jessica del Pilar Ramírez-Anaya,Ernesto Tapia-Campos,Jaqueline Beltrán

doi:10.3390/plants9030294

Ma Claudia Castañeda-Saucedo, Jessica del Pilar Ramírez-Anaya + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9030294

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Abstract

Stevia is an important non-caloric sweetener that has health-beneficial properties. The objective is to evaluate growth, development, and rooting of stevia plants during different seasons of the year using growth hormones. Eight experiments were set up in Ciudad Guzman, Jalisco, Mexico, with three treatments (T): T1, indol-3 butyric acid (IBA) 7.4 mM; T2, alphanaphthylacetamide (ANA) 6.4 mM + IBA 0.3 mM; and T3, control. The variables evaluated were rooted plantlets, plant height, root length, number of leaves, stem diameter, leaf dry weight, stem dry weight, root dry weight, leaf area, shoot biomass, total biomass, as well as development and growth indexes. Four samplings were conducted in each experiment. The results show that the most appropriate months for propagating stevia cuttings are February, March, April, May, and July, when 96% to 99% of the cuttings rooted. The hormones had the best results related to production of root development. The control was outstanding only in variables related to production of shoot biomass and not to root development. It is concluded that stevia can be propagated vegetatively using cuttings treated with IBA 7.4 mM or ANA 6.4 mM + IBA 0.3 mM, preferable in the period from February to July, with the exception of June.

Highlights

Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni), which originated in Paraguay [1], belongs to the Asteracea family, native to the South American tropics
The average daily low temperature recorded during the experiments oscillated between 5.8 ◦ C in January to 17.35 ◦ C in August
The average daily high temperature varied between 32 ◦ C in January to 42.7 ◦ C in May, and the mean temperature was 16.4 ◦ C in January and 24.9 ◦ C in May (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni), which originated in Paraguay [1], belongs to the Asteracea family, native to the South American tropics. Japan uses large quantities of stevia; the total market value of stevia sweetener is estimated to be around 2–3 billion yen/year [5]. It is considered a novel profitable crop, with promise in México [2]. Its principal active compounds are steviosides, rebaudioside, and steviolbioside [7], which, isolated, can be up to 300 times sweeter than sucrose. It is the best substitute for cane sugar because of its natural origin and its low caloric content [8]. Because of this and other therapeutic applications [2], with beneficial effects on type II

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