Establishment of an accelerated micropropagation system for Curcuma aeruginosa using a self-developed bench top aerated culture vessel

Curcuma aeruginosa, a valuable medicinal plant of Zingiberaceae family, has been used traditionally for the treatment of various diseases by the locals of Southeast Asian countries. The demand of this plant coupled with its slow growing habit have resulted in gradual declining of its population. The aim of the study is to establish an efficient micropropagation technique for production of C. aeruginosa seedlings as planting materials to produce the rhizomes to meet the market demand. When the rhizomatous buds were cultured for eight weeks on the gelled shoot proliferation medium, MS supplemented with 2 mg L−1 benzyladenine (BA) and 0.5 mg L−1 naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), only two to three shoots were produced from each explant. The newly established micropropagation technique by culturing the half-shoot explants in the aerated culture system for four weeks followed by another four weeks culture on gelled shoot proliferation medium, enabled an average of 15 shoots to produce from each explant. The in vitro seedlings derived via the conventional gelled medium had higher survival rate (96.7 ± 1.2 %) after acclimatization as compared to the established micropropagation technique with the aid of the aerated culture system (91.7 ± 1.7 %). This self-invented aerated culture system incorporate with gelled culture medium is an efficient mass propagation technique for C. aeruginosa. It enabled C. aeruginosa shoot explants to produce five times more clonal plantlets as compared to the conventional gelled medium culture.