3. Results and discussion
3.1. Effect of different strength of MS medium
The effect of different strength of liquid MS media on growth
index of H. callitrichoides after 15 days was studied to
find out the
optimum MS concentration for in vitro micropropagation of the
plant as different plants have different nutrient requirement. From
Fig. 1, the growth index of H. callitrichoides was affected by the
concentration of the nutrients in the liquid MS media. The mean
growth index of explant cultured in full strength MS, 1/2 strength
MS, 1/4 strength MS and 1/8 strength MS were 7.34
0.17 g/g,
5.52
0.4 g/g, 5.20
0.47 g/g and 4.48
0.28 g/g respectively. An
increasing trend in the growth index of H. callitrichoides was
observed when the strength of MS media was increased from half
to full strength. This could be explained by the fact that increasing
concentration of nutrients such as nitrate, ammonia and phosphate
in the culture media could promote the growth of most of
the plants. However, the increase in the concentration of nutrients
from 1/8 strength MS to 1/2 strength MS did not have significant
effect on the growth index of H. callitrichoides after the
fifteen days
from day of cultivation (P > 0.05) as shown in Fig. 1. The highest
growth index of explant was recorded by culturing the explants
using full strength MS medium (7.34
0.17 g/g) whereas the lowest
growth index was recorded in 1/8 strength MS medium
(4.48
0.28 g/g). The propagation of H. callitrichoides in full
strength MS medium was proved to be at its optimum as compared
to 1/2 strength MS, 1/4 strength MS and 1/8 strength MS (P < 0.05).