MICROPROPAGATION OF Myrmecodia Tuberosa Jack.A MEDICINAL PLANT FROM BORNEO

Propagation of Myrmecodia tuberosa was developed for induction shoot from different explant sources by using various plant growth regulators PGRs. Cotyledons hypocotyls tubers and roots on initiation shoot tip and axillar bud on multiplication stages have been successfully regenerated on Murashige and Skoog MS medium agar. The effects of PGRs BA-6 benzylaminopurine BAP on initiation BAP GA3-Gibberelic acid GA3 on multiplication and NAA-26945-Naphthalene acetic acid NAA on rooting were studied. Various medium both single and combination viz coco peat fern charcoal and moss on acclimatization stage were describe. The results showed that different explant sources of M. tuberosa were potentially produced high number of shootswhich was influenced by the varying concentration of PGRs. In initiation stage the optimum number of shoots 15.60 per explantwas obtained from hypocotyls on MS medium agar with BAP 4 mgL for 12 weeks while axillar bud on MS medium agar BAP 9 mgL resulted the highest number of shoots 36.60 per explant for 12 weeks in multiplication stage. In rooting stage the addition of NAA 0.15 mgL on MS medium agar was found as optimum PGRs to obtain highest number of root 18.40 root per explant. Plantlets of M. Tuberosa were also successfully acclimatized at green house in coco peatmoss and fernmoss medium in acclimatization with 100 survival. Therefore it is suggested that the use of specific source e1xplant PGRs either initial multiplication or rooting and certain combination of medium in acclimation stage are important to be applied in order to increase the population of Myrmecodia tuberosa from North Borneo Island.