Regenerating of whole plants of Calendula otticicnslis, L. was achieved
through direct organogenesis using leaf and cotyledonary nodes as explants. Leaves
were taken from 3·week-old in vitro plantlets and cultured on MS basal medium
supplemented with 200 mg/L glutamine and 500 mgl L casein hydrolisate. The
medium contained SA with different auxins (2,4-0 and NAA) Prolific direct
adventitious shoot regeneration occurred on most of the tested media which that
contained either 2.4-0 or NAA. The best response in terms of frequency of shoot
regeneration (86.64%), number of shoots per explant (7.60) and bud forming capacity
(6.58) were obtained with 1.0 mg/L 2,4-0 alone. Cotyledonary node explants were
cultured on MS medium,supplemented with various concentrations of Kin and NAA.
The highest frequency of regenerated shoots was achieved on MS medium
supplemented with 2.0 mg/L Kin and 1.0mg/L NAA (9.20). Regenerated shoots were
excised and rooted, the highest number of root/shoot was obtained with half strength
MS salt medium supplemented with 1.0 mg/L ISA In vitro rooted plantlets were
finally transferred to mixture of peatmoss and vermiculite al equal volume w·th
survival rate95% after 21 days. Abbreviations: MS- Murashige and Skoog; 2,4-D - diChlorophenoxyacetic acid;
BA-Benzyladenine ; NAA- a-naphthalene acetic acid; IBA- indole-3-
butyric acid; Kin-Kinetin, BFC; Sud Forming Capacity