Micropropagation and Medium Term Conservation of Antirrhinum majus L.

Antirrhinum majus is an attractive herbaceous plant, cultivated as ornamentals for its attractive view. An efficient in vitro protocol for A. majus was optimized. Shoot tips were excised from field grown mature plants and transferred to hormone-free Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium. The addition of 1.5 mg/L kinetin and 0.5 mg/L benzyl adenine (BAP) produced the highest multiplication rate (2.37) per explant. There was no callus at the bases of the microshoots. Micorshoots were rooted on MS medium containing indole-3-butyric acid (IBA), indole acetic acid (IAA) or naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) at 0.0, 0.4, 0.8, 1.2, 1.6 or 2.0 mg/L. Rooting did not occur in the absence of IBA, IAA or NAA. Ninety percent of the microshoots were rooted on MS medium supplemented with 0.4 mg/L IBA, IAA or NAA. A total of 90% survival was achieved when rooted explants were acclimatized ex vitro using 1 soil: 1 perlite: 1 peat mixture. In another experiment, in vitro A. majus explants were successfully stored without serious losses by using MS medium supplemented with an appropriate concentration of 3% sucrose, 3-6% sorbitol or 6% glucose at 24 ± 2 °C for up to 32 weeks