MIKROPROPAGASI TANAMAN ILES-ILES {Amorphophallus muelleri Blume)

Abstract

In Indonesia, iles-iles (Amorphophallus muelleri Blume) has not yet been cultivated intensively; their cultivation area is still limited. This species contains high glucomannan, which is useful as food diet, paper pulp, textile, paint, film-negative, celluloid and cosmetic industry. The cultivation of A. muelleri is hampered by limited genetic quality of plant.The species is triploid (2n=3x=39), the seed is developed apomictically, and pollen production is low.This may explain that the species is difficult to breed conventionally and genetic variability in the existing landraces cultivars is rather limited. Genetic variability of this plant is therefore can be achieve by induced mutation through tissue cultures for use in breeding program to develop better cultivars.Developing an efficient and effective micropropagation of the species is therefore important for use in the genetic improvement program.In other hands, the prospect for development and export of iles-iles is high since the demand from Japan alone has not been fulfilled. Propagation of iles-iles is generally done by splitting tubers, bulbils or leaf cuttings, but this method can not yield planting materials in large quantities within a relatively short time. In this research, young shoots which had just appeared from tubers were used as a source of explants. Sterilization of the explants was carried out in 0.05 % HgCl, solution for 20 min, rinsed several times with sterile distilled water and then cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium containing 0.1-0.2 mg/1 Thidiazuron (TDZ), 0.5-1.0 mg/1 Benzylaminopurine (BAP) and 0.5-1.0 mg/1 Kinetin (KIN) singly or in combination. Acclimatization of plantlets was done on 3 kinds of media namely (A), soil + compost, (B) soil + compost.+ cocopeat, and (C) soil + cocopeat. The results showed that the best medium is MS containing 0.2 mg/1 TDZ and 0,5 mg/1 BAP for in vitro shootbuds induction and proliferation of iles-iles, while MS without plant growth regulators is suitable for shoot growth and root formation and soil + compost + cocopeat for acclimatization of plantlets.