Abstract

VAZQUEZ-BAXCAJAY, Liberia; ROBLEDO-PAZ, Alejandrina; MURATALLA-LUA, Alfonso  and  CONDE-MARTINEZ, Víctor. Micropropagation of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, and steviosides detection. Bioagro [online]. 2014, vol.26, n.1, pp.49-56. ISSN 1316-3361.

Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni produces diterpenoid glycosides (steviosides) which can be used as dietetic edulcorants. The growing demand for the plant requires the search of new production ways, such as tissue culture through micropropagation. For in vitro regeneration, nodal segments were used as explants which were cultured on Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with different combinations of 6-benzyladenine (2.0-4.0 mg·L^-1), kinetin (1.3- 8.0 mg·L^-1) and 3-indoleacetic acid (0.3-1.0 mg·L^-1). There were significant differences in the percentage of explants with shoots and number of shoots per explant, being the lowest the combination containing 2.0 mg·L^-1 kinetin and 0.5 mg·L^-1 IAA, which only showed 29,41 % explants with shoots, and 1.40 shoots per explant. The plants were able to acclimate to greenhouse conditions in the first 15 days; after 60 days 81 % of plants survived, and four months later those plants produced seeds. Extracts obtained from stock plant tissues, micropropagated plants cultured in the greenhouse and micropropagated plants cultured in vitro were analyzed by thin layer chromatography to detect the presence of steviosides. Stevioside, steviol and rebaudioside A were identified in extracts from stock plants, steviol and stevioside in micropropagated plants cultured in the greenhouse and stevioside and rebaudioside A in in vitro cultured plants.

Keywords : Acclimatization; tissue culture; glycosides; growth regulators.

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