Optimization of Micropropagation for Curcuma longa

Curcuma longa is also known as turmeric and commonly as kunyit among the local Malay people. It belongs to Zingiberaceae family and is one of the highly commercialised and sought after ginger member. The production in field for this ginger species is growing by year owing to its use in cooking, as traditional medicine, cloth dye industry and in food processing industry. However, the growth of this plant species is very much dependent on environmental factor which influences the production of the secondary metabolites especially for medical research. Hence, micropropagation offers an alternative for massive plant production under controlled environment for homogenous secondary metabolite production. Previous studies done was not focused on optimization of surface sterilization and use of growth hormone to promote growth of turmeric in in vitro which this study has reported.The rhizome buds were immersed in 100% (v/v) Clorox® solution for 20 minutes and were then rinsed thrice with sterilised distilled water. Rhizome buds were immersed in 95% ethanol for two minutes and then were rinsed again to remove the ethanol completely. Aseptic rhizome buds were cultured on the MS medium with three different growth hormone which are IAA, BAP and 2,4-D with various concentration (0.1 mg/L, 0.2 mg/L, 0.3 mg/L, 0.4 mg/L, 0.5 mg/L). The growth of each hormone with each concentration was observed after two weeks. MS media with 0.2 mg/L and 0.3 mg/L of IAA and BAP showed rapid shooting growth while plantlets cultured in 2,4-D were observed to be free of contaminants. Throughout the research, it was observed that IAA with concentration 0.2 mg/L and 0.3 mg/L has a significant growth compared to other concentration. Surface sterilization with 95% ethanol for two minutes and 100% (v/v) Clorox® solution for 20 minutes had provided aseptic explants to form new shoots. Hence, the determination on effect of three hormone concentration on shoot growth in C. longa has been achieved and fast surface sterilization and micropropagation protocol was established for C. longa through this study.