Abstract:
Supplementing culture media with organic additives is a simple and cost-effective way of improving
the growth and development of Anthurium andraeanum Lind. in vitro cultures. The present study
was conducted in the Floriculture Research and Development Unit at the Royal Botanical Gardens,
Peradeniya to identify the potentials of Moringa olifera Lam. (Moringa) and Azadiracta indica L.
(Neem) organic supplements in promoting in vitro cultures. Initially, the Murashige and Skoog (MS)
medium was prepared in three strengths (full, ½ and ¼), then additionally supplemented with %,,
10 and 15g/L of moringa and neem leaf powder separately. Altogether, seven treatments (media)
including one control (MS only) were made with introducing explants (1 cm height plantlets) from
Anthurium Lj21 Lalani variety. The experiment was laid out in completely randomized design with
seven treatments having 10 replicates. One month after explant inoculation the number of leaves,
shoots and roots per plantlet and shoot length (cm) were recorded. Data analysis was done using
SPSS software and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to check the significant differences
between treatments. According to the results, different treatments had significantly (p<0.05)
affected the tested parameters. The ¼ MS+15 g/L of neem leaf powder increased the number of
leaves per plantlet (7.25) whereas, Full MS+5 g/L of neem leaf powder resulted the production of
increased number of roots per plantlet (2.88). The ½ MS+10 g/L of moringa leaf powder (1.56), ¼
MS+15 g/L of moringa leaf powder (1.69) and ½ MS+10 g/L of neem leaf powder (1.69) resulted
significantly higher number of shoots per plantlet than the control treatment (1.06). On the other
hand, all three concentration of neem leaf powder increased the shoot length of Anthurium explants
than other treatments. Conversely, Full MS+5 g/L of moringa leaf powder did not give improved
results in the tested parameters. According to this study, moringa and neem leaf powder can be
introduced to develop a simple and cost-effective culture media for promoting Anthurium tissue
culture. However, further studies are needed to discover the chemical composition of the above
additives and to understand their interaction effects.
