In vitro regeneration of the Bauhinia cheilantha via organogenesis

Bauhinia cheilantha, known as "pata-de-vaca", is of great economic and ethnopharmacological importance in the semiarid Brazilian. Seeds are dormant which makes it difficult to obtain uniform plants in a short time before this, our study aimed to establish a micropropagation protocol for the species. Cotyledonary and nodal segments of seedlings grown in vitro were inoculated on Woody Plant Medium (WPM) supplemented with various concentrations of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP), thidiazuron (TDZ) or kinetin (KN) to induce adventitious shoot regeneration. In the rooting phase, different concentrations of indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and the activated charcoal were tested. The nodal segments showed organogenic capacity greater than the cotyledonary segment. The highest number of shoots (4.3 and 2.1) was obtained at 1.0mg L-1 TDZ and 1.5mg L-1 BAP, respectively. However, in the presence of TDZ was observed the smaller shoots.The use of 2.0mg L-1 IBA within activated charcoal (AC) promoted the highest percentage of rooting (about 60.0%) and number of adventitious roots (2.5). The rooted shoots were transferred to greenhouse and successfully acclimatized.

micropropagation; Leguminosae; pata-de-vaca; cytokinins; auxin; activated charcoal