Abstract

Telfairia occidentalis is a tropical vine and has been a good source of iron rich vegetable to man. It is normally propagated through seeds but the seeds are recalcitrant in nature. The vegetative propagation of T. occidentalis has been difficult hence there is a need to develop an in vitro method. Nodal cuttings of T. occidentalis was cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS; 1962) basal media supplemented with IBA, IAA, NAA, BAP, and kinetin at different concentrations. Among all the growth hormones used, IBA and BAP combination gave the best result for both rooting and shooting while BAP in combination with NAA showed the highest number of nodes. The result showed that in vitro growth of T. occidentalisis hormone specific.

Key words: Telfairia occidentalis, hormones, IBA, IAA, NAA, BAP, kinetin in vitro.

Abbreviation

NAA, Naphthalene acetic acid; BAP, benzylaminopurine; IBA, indolebutyric acid; and IAA, indole-3-acetic acid.