Developing an In Vitro Propagation Method for Mass Production of Medicinal Hypoxis Species Using Bioreactors

Hypoxis species are amongst the most important medicinal plants of southern Africa in traditional medicine, and in the composition of pharmaceutical products. These perennial grasses belong to the Hypoxidaceae family and occur naturally. Bioreactors are suitable for vegetative propagation of plant materials for mass production, but have not been previously reported in Hypoxis species. In this study micropropagation of Hypoxis species using bioreactors was evaluated for future mass production using two species: H. argentea Harv. ex Baker var. argentea and H. filiformis Baker. Corms of both H. argentea and H. filiformis and shoots of H. filiformis, initially established on semi-solid medium were used as explants. Explants were cultured for 10 weeks in bioreactors containing the MS medium supplemented with different types and concentrations of plant growth regulators. The results showed that both corm and shoot cultures can be used as explants for shoot regeneration and multiplication of both species. The most suitable medium for achieving better proliferation differed between the two species. For H. filiformis, the highest regeneration rate of 85% with the highest multiplication rate of 12 was achieved with corm explants cultured in the PGR-free MS. For H. argentea the highest regeneration rate of 72%, from corm explants was also obtained from the same medium, but the highest multiplication rate of 5 was obtained from the MS medium supplemented with 3 mg/l kinetin. Shoot cultures of H. filiformis achieved 75% regeneration rate in the medium supplemented with 1.1 mg/l TDZ. Establishment of acclimatized shoots ex vitro was 86%.

Author(s): Nsibande BE and Zhu L

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