Effects of Various Gelling Agents on Growth and Development of Adventitious Buds of Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)

Abstract

Purple coneflower is a perennial medicinal herbaceous plant belongs to family Asteraceae, native to Midwestern and Southeastern United States. In addition to medicinal value, it has received considerable attention in recent years for its value in landscape and in florist bouquets. Gelling agents are used in plant tissue culture to solidify the nutrient medium. In this study, we examined the growth and development of purple coneflower in MS basal medium incorporated with different gelling agents. Petiole explants were grown on the MS basal medium with 0.3 mg/1 BA and 0.01 mg/1 NAA as sole plant growth regulators with different concentrations of gelling agents (agar 0.5%, phytagel 0.2%, cold-gel gum 0.7%, carrageenan 0.6%) and weight of whole plant (g), weight of leaf (g), weight of petiole (g), weight of root (g) and weight of residues (g) were measured separately from the regenerated plants Significantly high weight o f whole plant (1.56 g) was observed in the medium with agar while the least weight o f whole plant (0.4172 g) was observed in the medium which was solidified by Carrageenan. Among the tested gelling agents, 0.5% agar and 0.2% phytagel were found more effective than cold-gel gum and carrageenan for improving shoot growth and development of the plant.