Response of NaCl and Brassinolide in Stevia rebaudiana under in vitro Condition

The current work sought to investigate the impact of two chemicals (NaCl and Brassinolide) on growth parameters, chlorophyll pigments in stevia shoots cultured under in vitro condition. For this, nodal explants of stevia were cultured for four weeks on MS medium supplemented with 0.2 mg l-1 BAP, Kinetin 0.2 mg l-1 and various concentrations of NaCl (0, 60, 70, 90, 120, 150 mM) and BL (0, 1, 2, 3 4, 5µM) for screening under in vitro condition. Explant treated with NaCl showed reduction with increasing salinity levels in all the studied parameters while explants treated with Brassinolide showed best results in all the studied parameters. From the results, it is concluded that the stevia plant was less impacted by 60mM and 70mM NaCl concentrations when compared to other concentrations of NaCl, but BL increased/improved all the examined parameters when compared to control; 1µM and 2µM concentrations of BL responded the best.