Sugarcane juice as an alternative carbon source for in vitro culture of plantains and bananas

Abstract

The suitability of sugarcane juice for the in vitro culture of bananas and plantains was investigated in this study. Two concentrations of sugar cane juice 5, 10% and 30 g L­1 laboratory sucrose were used. There was also a control medium without carbon source. Explants were prepared from field grown sword suckers. The preparation of the explants involved, sterilization with 70% ethanol, followed by 1% Sodium hypochlorite+1% tween 20. The explants were cultured at 26°C, under 16 h photoperiod, light intensity of 3000 lux and a relative humidity of 60%. Plants that were cultured on 5% sugarcane juice had higher average fresh weight values of 16.6 g per plant compared to those that were cultured on the 30 g L­1 sucrose and 10% sugarcane juice which had fresh weight of 15.6 g per plant and 11.0 g per plant, respectively. Oniba had higher fresh weight on medium supplemented with 5% sugarcane juice compared to the two other cultivars. In terms of dry weight, ‘Oniaba’ again had the highest value of 7.2 g per plant which was obtained on medium supplemented with 5% sugarcane juice. Plants that were cultured on 5% sugarcane juice were better in terms of shoot height and number of shoots per plant than those cultured on 30 g L­1 sucrose and the differences between the 5% sugarcane juice and the other treatments were statistically different. The various carbon sources and their concentrations also affected the water potential of the media. Medium supplemented with 10% sugarcane juice had the lowest water potential of ­0.8 MPa compared to the control medium that had a water potential of ­0.1 MPa. Medium supplemented with 5% sugarcane juice and 30 g L­1 sucrose had in a medium water potential of ­0.3 MPa. Five percent sugarcane juice was found to be a better substitute for laboratory grade sucrose for the in vitro propagation of Musa sp