Effect of plant growth regulators on regeneration of plantlets from bud cultures of Cymbopogon nardus L. and the detection of essential oils from the in vitro plantlets

Cymbopogon nardus L. could be propagated via tissue culture using axillary buds as explants. The aseptic bud explants obtained using double sterilization methods produced stunted abnormal multiple shoots when they were cultured on Murashige and Skoog medium (MS) supplemented with 1.0 mg L-1 or 2.0 mg L-1 benzyladenine (BA). Stunted shoots that cultured on MS + 1.0 mg L-1 RA + 1.0 mg L-1 N-6-isopentenyl-adenine (2iP) could induce elongation of shoots from about 60% of the stunted shoots. Normal multiple shoots could be induced at the highest (19.7 shoots per bud) from the bud explants within six weeks when cultured on proliferation medium consisted of MS supplemented with 0.3 mg L-1 BA and 0.1 mg L-1 indole-3-butyric acid (IBA). The separated individual shoot produced roots when transferred to basic MS solid medium. The essential oils that were contained in the mature plants namely citronellal, geraniol and citronellol were also found in the in vitro C nardus plantlets. Citronellal was the main essential oil component in the matured plants while geraniol was the main component in the in vitro plantlets.