Tissue culture of bael fruit tree (Aegle marmelos Correa.)

Abstract

Studies were conducted on the effects of type of explants and plant growth regulators for tissue culture ofAegle marmelos Corr?a. that were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 2.0 mg/l Zeatin in combination with 0.5 mg/l Naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) for 8 weeks. The results showed that the highest percentage of callus formation was 100%, the average diameter of the callus was 1.11 cm, the highest percentage of shoot formation was 93.18%, the average shoot length was 1.90 cm and the average number of shoots was 5.21 shoots/callus when cultured from cotyledon. Then, the shoot explants derived from the callus were cultured on MS medium plus 0 and 10 mg/l Indolebutyric acid (IBA) combined with 0, 0.5 and 1.0 mg/l Indoleacetic acid (IAA) for 12 weeks. The best result for root formation was 62.96% that was achieved on the MS medium supplemented with 10 mg/l IBA and 1.5 mg/l IAA.