Effect of differential concentration of micronutrient copper and zinc on in vitro morphogenesis of Foeniculum vulgare Mill.

The present study was carried out to investigate the morphogenic roles played by copper and zinc during micropropagation of Foeniculum vulgare Mill., an aromatic medicinal herb and the major spices of traditional food. When grown on MS medium the cotyledonary node gave the maximum multiple shoot proliferation over MS medium supplemented with 1.0 mg L−1 BAP concentration. Incorporation of 0 μM CuSO4 or 29.91 µM ZnSO4 to Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with optimized concentration of BAP i.e. 1.0 mg L−1 induced a maximum number of shoot buds per nodal explant (4.3 ± 0.8 and 4.1 ± 1.1, respectively). However, higher concentration of both the micronutrients effectively affected the morphogenic potential of F. vulgare. The optimum concentrations of Cu and Zn in culture media are highly important for obtaining rapid and enhanced in vitro multiplication of F. vulgare.