Liquid medium culture: an approach for the commercial micropropagation of aloe (Aloe barbadensis Mill.)

Abstract

Micropropagation is considered a successful alternative for aloe (Aloe barbadensis Mill.) plant production. However, it has limited use due to the high production cost. Liquid media were compared to agar-gelled medium during all micropropagation stages of aloe to reduce the cost for gelling agent used. In the establishment stage, there was a higher percentage of contaminated explants in static liquid medium (25.55%) than those cultured in agar-gelled medium (11.11%), although all the explants were established independently of the culture medium used, higher height (3.81 cm) was observed in liquid medium than those growing in agar-gelled medium (3.03 cm). In the multiplication stage, explant height was higher in the recipients used for automated temporary immersion system (RITA®) (4.43 - 6.01 cm) than those cultured in agar-gelled medium (3.24 - 3.42 cm), there was no significant difference for number of shoots/explant. All shoots had roots at 30 days independently of used culture media (static liquid or agar-gelled media). Shoot height, number and root length had similar values in both culture media. The implementation of liquid media and automated temporary Immersion system RITA® may allow to reduce production costs of gelling agent used, it represents an approach for the commercial micropropagation of aloe

Keywords

• Cultivo de tejidos
• agentes gelificantes
• RITA®
• sistemas de inmersión temporal.