Studies on Response of Explatns to in vitro Culturing and Organogenesis in Bixa orellana L.

The important parameters of explant, age and type, cytokinin type, charcoal, auxin type for in vitro clonal propagation, of annatto were studied. The best organogenic response was obtained for the axillary bud explants excised from 7 days old seedlings were cultured on MS medium supplemented with BAP 3 mg l⁻¹, Kin 2 mg l⁻¹ with charcoal 5 g l⁻¹ produced maximum 3.2 + 0.29 number of shoots. Explants derived from 15 days old seedlings producedcallusing of explants. Shoot tip explants failed to produce multiple shoots. Rhizogenesis efficiency was greater when ½ MS was supplemented with IBA 1mg l⁻¹. IBA was found superior over NAA for rhizogenesis. Soilrite was found effective for primary hardening as 61.60 percent of plantlets survived. During the secondary hardening (88.96%) plantlets survived after acclimatization. This optimized regeneration protocol may further be refined in respect of multiplication ratio to make it more suitable for commercial exploitation.