PIGMENT ANALYSIS AND TISSUE CULTURE OF AMARANTHUS CRUENTUS L.

Amaranthus cruentus or the ‘red amaranth’ or the ‘Mexican grain amaranth’ is a flowering plant that belongs to the Amaranthaceae family.
It produces edible seeds that are eaten as a cereal grain or cooked into a porridge, and the leaves are cooked like spinach.
In this study, tissue culture of Amaranthus cruentus was conducted through manipulation of growth regulators and plant hormones to produce coloured callus.
Hormones such as naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA), benzyl aminopurine (BAP), 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid (2,4-D), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), kinetin, zeatin and gibberellic acid (GA₃) with different concentrations and combinations were used.
Leaves and stems of Amaranthus cruentus were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) media, supplemented with different hormone combinations and incubated at 24-26C with 16 h of light and 8 h of dark to produce cream, red and green coloured callus.
The most optimum media for the induction of red callus was MS media supplemented with 1.5 mg/L IAA and 1.5 mg/L zeatin, while the most responsive explant was the leaves.
The effects of pH and sucrose content on callus formations were also studied.
The results obtained showed that pH 5.8 and sucrose content of more than 30 g/L produced the most optimum outcome.
The red pigments were extracted and analyzed with thin layer chromatography, simple colour testing and UV/Vis spectrophotometer.
The tests confirmed that the red pigments were flavonoids called betacyanins.

I International Symposium on Sustainable Vegetable Production in Southeast Asia

J.S. Yaacob, L.C. Hwei , R.M. Taha, N.A. Mat Nor , N. Aziz

Amaranthus cruentus, coloured callus, flavonoid, betacyanin

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2012.958.20