IN VITRO CULTURE ESTABLISHMENT OF WOAD (ISATIS TINCTORIA L.)

Woad (Isatis tinctoria L.) was widely cultivated in Europe to produce indigo, a natural blue dye.
This plant, besides its importance as a dye, reveals anti-inflammatory and anticancer medicinal properties.
Our goal was to evaluate the best culture medium to establish woad plants in vitro.
Nodal segments of young plants were cultured in Murashige and Skoog (MS) and Gamborg (B5) media supplemented with BAP or KIN, with or without NAA. Number and length of shoots and number of internodes were evaluated in two woad populations.
In the Bristol population higher values for all the parameters were observed as compared with Coimbra population.
Considering the two basal media B5 was more effective to induce multiplication.
The best multiplication rates were obtained in B5 medium supplemented with 1.0 mg/L BAP (3.4 shoots per explant). The addition of auxin to the culture media did not increase multiplication.
The addition of activated charcoal showed a positive effect in the length of shoots and in the number of internodes, reaching the highest values when MS medium was supplemented with 1.0 mg/L KIN.

III International Symposium on Acclimatization and Establishment of Micropropagated Plants

F. Leal, J. Cipriano, V. Carnide, O. Pinto-Carnide

Isatis tinctoria, woad, dye, establishment, culture medium, active charcoal

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2009.812.10