Effects of Essential Oil Made of Orange Peels on Fungal Contamination of Elephant Grass, Cassava Plant and Corn Kernel Explants on Tissue Culture Medium

Tissue culture technology is an alternative way that can be used to produce plant seeds that will be widely developed as feed for ruminants. However, this technique often has constraint in the form of fungal contamination which affect the growth of explants during culture. One way in preventing the fungal pollution is by immersing explants in an antifungal solution in the form of essential oil. The aim of this study was to obtain the optimum concentration of essential oils made from orange peels to inhibit fungal growth in explants of elephant grass, cassava plant and corn kernel. There are 6 concentrations of essential oils as the treatments, including 0%, 2%, 4%, 6%, 8% and 10%. Each treatment consisted of 4 replications and observations were carried out for 4 months period. Results obtained that concentration of essential oil as much as 10% was the best for preventing fungal growth followed by concentrations of 8%, 6%, 4% and 2%. However, explants of elephant grass and cassava plant can grow well at concentrations of 2% and 4%. It is concluded that essential oils with a minimum concentration of 2% can be used to prevent the growth of fungal contamination in explants of elephant grass and cassava plant.