Study on the biological effect of radiation-degraded alginate and chitosan on plant in tissue culture

The solution of chitosan (10%) and alginate (4%) were irradiated at doses of 10-250 kGy for degradation and the products were used for testing of plant growth promotion effect. The chitosan and alginate irradiated at 100 kGy and 75 kGy, respectively showed the strongest growth-promotion effect for plants namely L. latifolium, E. grandiflorum and C. morifolium in tissue culture. For shoot multiplication, the suitable concentrations are found to be ca. 50-200 mg/l for C. morifolium, 70-100 mg/l for L. latifolium and 30-100 mg/l E. grandiflorum with irradiated chitosan, while with irradiated alginate, it was 30-200 mg/l, 30-50 mg/l and 10-200 mg/l, respectively. The optimum concentrations for C. morifolium, E. grandiflorum, L. latifolium incubated on rooting medium are ca. 100 mg/l, 30 mg/l and 40 mg/l, respectively for irradiated chitosan and 100 mg/l for irradiated alginate. After acclimatizing for 30 days in the greenhouse, the survival ratio of the transferred C. morifolium, E. grandiflorum, L. latifolium plantlets treated with irradiated chitosan was improved 18%, 39% and 13%, respectively. (author)