In vitro propagation and secondary metabolites production in the wild rare asparagus aphyllus l. plant

Abstract EN

A sparagus aphyllus is grown in Egypt naturally as a rare plant.

It is utilized in conventional medicine to treat various liver diseases and as anti-cancer.

Shoot tips have been cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 1.0 mg/l kinetin (kin) and 6-benzyl adenine (BA) combined with different concentrations of α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) for the multiplication of shoots.

The shoot of 5 cm has been cultured on 1/2 MS medium supplemented with various concentrations of indole-3- butyric acid (IBA) or full MS medium with 1.0 mg/l kin and two concentrations of NAA for rooting.

The top results of multiplication were obtained with 1.0 mg/l BA and 0.2 mg/l NAA and gave 12 shoots per explant and the maximum mean length of shoot was 6.60 cm with 1.0 mg/l BA and 0.4 mg/l NAA.

The highest percentage of rooting was 20% after three months of culture on half strength MS medium with IBA at 1.5 mg/l and 2.0 mg/l.

The mean number of roots per explant was 1.6 roots.

The mean length of root was 4.0 cm at a concentration of 2.0 mg/l IBA.

Percentage of survival after acclimatization was about 65% after two months.

The highest fresh weight of callus was 14.03 g with friable texture and observed on MS medium supplemented with 2.0 mg/l NAA plus 1.0 mg/l 2.4- D with 0.5 mg/l BA.

The total saponin that contains the highest value of 5.85 mg/g fresh weight was observed from the mother plant.

The results of the present study would be applicable for cost-effective large-scale micropropagation of Asparagus aphyllus and improvement.