Abstract:
Sandalwood (Santalum album L.) is a commercially and culturally
important plant species, known for its fragrant heartwood and oil. Due to
the high value of heartwood and oil, this species is illegally harvested in
large numbers leading to possible extinction. The present study was aimed
to determine the in vitro regenerative efficacy of different explants of
sandalwood. Six types of explants namely, shoot tips, stem segments,
immature entire leaves, mature leaf segments, petiole segments, and single
nodal segments were excised from the healthy stem cuttings of sandalwood
seedlings (two years old). The sterilized explants were separately cultured
on MS medium containing 0.5 mg/l BAP. The results revealed that in vitro
response percentage of the cultured explants showed significant difference
(p<0.01) among the tested explants ranging from 13.3% to 56.6%. The
immature leaf explants showed the highest in vitro response (43.3%) and
survival rate (65%) at four weeks of culture. Shoot tips exhibited higher
(80%) survival but low in vitro response (33.3%). Mature leaf explants were
subjected to browning. Petiole and mature leaf explants failed to show in
vitro response and had lower survival rates among the tested explants of
sandalwood. Therefore, immature entire leaves would be the more effective
among the tested explants with the given medium constituents.
