Cultivo vegetal in vitro do ginseng-brasileiro (Pfaffia glomerata)

Abstract

Pfaffia glomerata (Spreng.) Pedersen, known as Brazilian ginseng or Pantanal ginseng, is widely used in popular medicine due to its antioxidant, rejuvenating, anti-hyperglycemic phytotherapeutic properties, among others. This work aimed to evaluate the development of the species in in vitro cultivation. The culture medium used as a source of nutrients was Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium. In the process of disinfestation of young seedlings collected under ex vitro conditions, sodium hypochlorite and Tween-20 polysorbate were tested, followed or not by alcohol. After establishing these conditions, the use of the phytohormone 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) was tested. From apical meristematic explants, seedlings developed in a culture medium in the absence of phytoregulators for 37 days were transplanted and cultivated for 28 days in MS medium, varying the BAP concentration by 0.05; 0.5; 1; 5 and 10 micromolars. The cultivation of apical explants of P. glomerata in MS medium without the addition of phytoregulators proved to be viable for in vitro micropropagation due to the good development of the shoots and roots of the seedlings. However, cultivation with the addition of BAP up to 5 micromolar proved to be the most suitable method for producing high quality plants, due to the exception of a greater number of axillary shoots.