Growth response of four accessions of Moringa oleifera Linn shoots cultured on various basic media

Abstract

Moringa (Moringa oleifera Linn) has a highly considerable nutritional value. The conventional propagation of Moringa has limitation. Propagation through tissue culture offers uniform transplants, and free of pests and diseases. Selection of basic medium is a critical point to find out the best medium compositions for micropropagation. The research was aimed to investigate growth response of M. oleifera shoots cultured on several basic media. The experimental design was factorial complete random design with two factors i.e. types of basic medium (MS, WPM, DKW, NN, and B5) in combination with accessions of M. oleifera: Bogor, Pekalongan, Bima and Blora. Each treatment consisted of 12 replicates. The growth variables observed were shoot height, number of shoots, number of petioles, number of roots, fresh weight, dry weight of plantlets, and plantlet performance. The growth observation was carried out every week. The results showed that type of basic medium significantly affected shoot height, number of petioles, fresh weight, dry weight, and number of shoots, but, it did not significantly affect the number of roots. The accessions significantly affected shoot height, number of petioles, number of roots, fresh weight, and dry weight, but, did not significantly affect number of shoots. The ANOVA showed an interaction between basic medium in combination with accessions on all growth variables observed. The highest shoot height (13,97 cm), number of petioles (12,33), and number of roots (8.33) were achieved on DKW basic medium on Bima and Pekalongan accessions, while the highest number of shoots (6.33) was found in NN medium.