Establishment of Primary and Sub-culture Conditions of Ardisia pusilla and Ardisia japonica in vitro

Explants of Ardisia pusilla A. DC. and Ardisia japonica (Thunb.) Blume were established in vitro from greenhouse grown plants for primary cultures. The primary cultures tested lateral buds, shoot tips, and rhizomes as sources for micropropagation materials in combination with various concentrations of benzyl adenine (BA), indole acetic acid (IAA) and naphthalene acetic acid (NAA). In A. pusilla, lateral buds were the best primary culture source and 58.5% of the explants produced shoots in 17.4 days. Shoot tips produced shoots in 30 days from 6% of explants. The results for A. japonica were similar to A. pusilla for primary culture; 27.4 days and 15.5%, respectively, for shoot formation from the lateral buds and 42 days and 12% from the shoot tip explants. Due to bacterial contamination, explants from rhizomes in both species failed to regenerate. Only one shoot in both species was produced from the primary cultures. In multiplication subcultures, BA at 0 to 5.0 mg L-1 in combination with IAA at 0.1 to 5.0 mg L-1 was tested. Effective concentrations for A. japonica were 1.0 mg L-1 BA and 0.1 mg L-1 IAA to yield 17.2 days for shoot formation, 100% sprouting, and 4.8 shoots. Effective concentrations for A. pusilla for shoot formation were 0.5 mg L-1 BA and 0.5 mg L-1 IAA to yield 61.9% sprouting in 17.8 days, forming only one shoot produced. A. pusilla explants required at least two nodes for multiplication during subculture.