Vol. 10, Issue 8 (2021)

Author(s):
Dhawale RN, Patwari LV, Sharma KM and Bharose AA

Abstract:
The study was conducted on commercially important crop plants like Sugarcane (Saccharum spp). 'Isubgol', the mucilaginous husk, derived from Plantago ovata was successfully used as a gelling material in tissue culture media. Many attempts have been made to find a substitute for agar as gelling agent. The use of 'Isubgol husk' along with agar can reduce the cost of gelling agents approximately by 47.5% in plant tissue culture media. The response from media gelled with Isubgol husk in sugarcane was similar to that from media solidified with agar. The substitution of conventionally used solidifying agent agar (0.8%) with alternative isubgol (1.5%) induced almost similar response with average callus formed. The properties of 'Isubgol husk', including its polysaccharide like and colloidal nature, reported resistance to enzymatic activity, good gelling ability. The husk even after autoclaving remained suspended and formed a gradient once the medium solidified. There was no softening of the 'Isubgol'-gelled medium during the entire course of culture. The media remained reasonably transparent and offered no serious problems to the explants.