Abstract:
Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is an
economically important crop, characterized for its
nutritious and pharmaceutical applications.
However, traditional propagation methods have
limitations in producing large quantities of high
quality plantlets. Hence, this research was aimed
at developing an efficient tissue culture protocol
for the successful establishment and determining
the best hormone concentration of Benzyl Amino
Purine (BAP) for shoot proliferation of the Sri
Lankan pomegranate variety, Cv. Nimali. The
explants (axillary nodal segments,1cm long) and
shoot tips (1cm long)) were derived from mature
healthy mother plants, surface sterilized and
introduced into full-strength woody plant media.
After two weeks, newly developed clean shoots
were transferred into multiplication media in
which five different concentration of BAP 0.0 mg/l
(T1, control), 0.25mg/l (T2) 0.5mg/l (T3), 1.0mg/l
(T4) and 1.5mg/l (T5) were introduced. The
cultures were incubated at 26 ± 2ºc under16/8 h
light/dark period in the incubation room. The
results indicated that the highest shoot bud
formation (6.0/plant), along with maximum shoot
height of (22.4 mm), the average of leaves
(11.4/plant), highest bud multiplication rate of
(6.0%), were observed in shoot tip explants treated
with 1.5 mg/L BAP (T5) after two-week period. In
contrast, axillary nodal segments without BAP
(T1) exhibited the lowest values, with shoot bud
formation (1.4/plant), shoot height (1.0 mm),
number of leaves (1.4/plant), and a bud
multiplication rate of (1.4%). These findings
demonstrate that the addition of 1.5 mg/L BAP to
shoot tip explants significantly enhances shoot
proliferation and growth in the Sri Lankan
pomegranate variety, Cv. Nimali.
