Cellular Suspensions Establishment and Multiplication of Cymbopogon citratus (D.C) Staff

Abstract

Cellular suspensions settled down starting from callus of Cymbopogon citratus (D.C) Stapf cultivated in semisolid medium, according to the methodology described for Freire (1998), for the cultivation of the cane of sugar and later on modified by Licea and Gómez (2000) for the cultivated callus of Cane Santa, with the objective of analyzing the effect of the cellular density on the cellular growth, being studied the behavior of the fresh mass, dry mass and the pH in three inocule densities (20, 40 and 60 gMF.l-1). The development of roots was evaluated in the cellular aggregated and it was also analyzed directly the influence of the explants on the callus formation cultivated directly in liquid medium, starting from cultivated plants in vitro. The biggest increment of fresh mass was obtained when 20 gMF.l-1 was used, the values of mass dry off they behaved in a similar way, being obtained the biggest rate of growth in this same treatment. The pH in the three densities of studied inocule, diminished during the first eight days and stayed stable starting from this moment. The alone presence of roots was appreciated only in the cellular aggregated cultivated without coconut water. The formation of callus directly in liquid medium took place in the region near to the meristematic area. Key words: coconut water, biomass production, lemon grass, root formation