Curcuma zedoaria Roscoe, a vegetatively propagated member of the Zingiberaceae family, has been used extensively due to therapeutic properties. The interest of in vitro massal propagation of medicinal plants has improved since the conventional methods of propagation limit the utilization potential of these plants. Shoot meristems were inoculated on agar-solidified culture media containing the basic salts and vitamins of Murashige & Skoog supplemented with 2.0 mg L-1 BAP and 30 g L-1 sucrose. The cultures were incubated in a growth room at 25±2°C and 16/8 hours photoperiod (light/dark). Transfers were carried out each 40 days. The results obtained allowed the determination of the number of plants produced by each transfer. It was also possible to estimate the number of plants to be produced at any number of transfers after 120 days from inoculation, based on the following equation: y=8.74x² - 21.19x + 23.47, where y is the number of plants produced and × is the number of transfers to be perfomed from each explant. The cost of C. zedoaria plants produced in vitro was US$0.38/plant when a production of 200,000 plants/year is considered.
zedoaria; tissue culture; plant production