Establishment Of Callus Culture Of Purple Amaranthus (Amaranthus cruentus)

Food colourant is widely used in food industry in order to enhance the product aesthetics. Natural food colourant is safer and healthier to be consumed compared to synthetic colourant that is used extensively nowadays. Natural food colourant can be obtained from plant source. Therefore, purple amaranth or Amaranthus cruentus can be used for anthocyanin extraction for producing natural food colourant. The purpose of this study is to establish aseptic seedlings of purple amaranth and to induce callus from different part of explant taken from the aseptic seedlings using different plant growth regulators. Seedlings were cultured aseptically on MS basal media. After the seedlings has grown bigger, explant stem and shoot has been taken to be subcultured on different plant growth regulator at three different concentrations. The explant was subcultured on 1 mg, 2 mg and 3 mg of NAA, 2,4-D and picloram. Seedlings that has been subcultured on MS basal media without the addition of the growth hormone germinated. Explant subculture on NAA media did not produce any callus similar to the explant subcultured on picloram. Explant subculture on 2,4-D media produced callus at concentration of 1 mg. Among the three different PGR used, 2,4-D showed better growth performance. This study of establishment of tissue culture techniques for A.cruentus will be able to produce callus that can be used for anthocyanin production as natural food colourant.