OPTIMIZATION OF GROWTH REGULATORS ON In vitro PROPAGATION OF Moringa oleifera Lam. AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF FIELD GROWN TISSUE CULTURED PLANTS

Moringa oleifera is the most widely cultivated species of the Moringaceae family attributed to several medicinal uses and a high nutritional value. To obtain plantlets of drumstick tree (Moringa oleifera Lam.) with identical genetic make up for propagation or field production, in vitro cultures of drumstick tree were produced. For multiple shoot induction, the stem explants of drumstick tree plantlets were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) agar medium supplemented with different concentrations of 6-benzyl adenine purine (BAP) and maintained at 25 ± 2°C for 5 weeks. The results showed that multiple shoot induction was present in the stem explants that were cultured on the MS medium supplemented with BAP at the concentration range of 0.5 - 3.0 mg/l or the combination of BAP at 1.5 mg/l, TDZ at the range of 0.2 - 1.0 mg/l and NAA at the range of 0.2 -1.0 mg/l. The MS medium containing BAP at 1.5 mg/l was found to produce 95.3% shoot formation with the highest average number of 8.4 shoots per explants. For plant regeneration, the shoot explants were cultured on ½ MS + 7 g/l agar + 15 g/l sucrose supplemented with IBA and IAA at different concentration root induction. The results showed that ½ MS + 7 g/l agar + 15 g/l sucrose supplemented with IBA at 0.3 mg/l and IAA at 0.2 mg/l produced 100% root formation with the highest average number of 4.2 roots per explants and 3.5 cm in length. The medium consisting of (40% soil + 50% sawdust + 10% worm compost) gave the highest average survival rate (88.9%) after 5 weeks under greenhouse conditions. Tissue culture protocol reported in this study is an alternative means of micro propagation of drumstick plantlets with uniform genotypes for breeding selection and field production.