Abstract:
This study was conducted in the Floriculture Research and Development Unit at the Royal Botanical Gardens,
Peradeniya to explore the potential of Moringa olifera Lam.
(Moringa) and Azadiracta indica (Neem) organic supplements
for promoting Orchid invitro culture of Dendrobium spp . The
Knudson C (KnC) basal media was prepared by additionally
supplemented with either 5g/l, 10g/l and 15g/l of moringa
powder, moringa leaf extract and neem leaf extract separately.
The experiment was laid out in completely randomized design
with 10 treatments having 10 replicates. One month after
explant incubation, the number of leaves, shoots and roots
per plantlets and shoot length were recorded. According to the
results, different treatments had significantly affected the tested
parameters (p<0.05). Both moringa and neem leaf extracts gave
improved responses compared to moringa powder. ¼ KnC+15g/l
of moringa leaf extract performed well in terms of producing
increased number of leaves and roots per plantlet, whereas full
KnC+5g/l of moringa leaf extract resulted the highest number
of shoots per plantlet (3.5). On the contrary, neem leaf extracts
(5g/l, 10g/l and 15g/l) increased the shoot length of orchid
explants and produced significantly higher number of roots per
plantlet. Hence, moringa and neem leaf extracts can be used to
develop a simple and cost effective culture media for promoting
orchid tissue culture.
