Micropropagation of Aquilaria microcarpa Baill. (Gaharu)

Aquilaria microcarpa Baill. or locally known as gaharu is a type of fragrant wood due to their production of aromatic pathological resin. It is economically important as the demand of the woods exceeds the supply in global market. However, the trees are in rapid declination due to overexploitation for the scented woods. Therefore, for commercial production of the wood in the market, micropropagation is considered necessary in producing large quantity of planting materials. This study was carried out with the objective of establishing a micropropagation protocol for Aquilaria microcarpa. Establishment of contamination-free (axenic or aseptic) culture in vitro is the prerequisite of micropropagation. In this study, many experiments have been carried out in an attempt to establish axenic culture of lamina, nodal, internodal and shoot-tip explants by: pre-sampling treatment of the source plants with 0.1% benlate spray at weekly intervals for three weeks. The explant materials were collected and left in running water for one hour, then in 75% ethanol for one minute followed by surface sterilization with Clorox and then rinsed three to five times using cold sterilized distilled water. The explants were then soaked in various fungicides and biocides before finally cultured in Murashige-Skoog or Woody Plant medium supplemented with certain concentrations of PPM, tetracycline and PVP. Results of all experiments conducted so far showed that the most effective regimes obtained were spraying with 0.1% benlate as pre-sampling treatment, surface sterilization of nodal, internodal and shoot-tip explants with 40% Clorox for 15 minutes, soaked in '/: PPM for 1/2h our and cultured in Woody Plant medium supplemented with 2.0 ml/L PPM, 5.0 mg/L tetracycline and 0.3% PVP