Establishment of an in vitro micropropagation protocol for Boscia senegalensis (Pers.) Lam. ex Poir.

This report describes in vitro micropropagation of Boscia senegalensis, so-called famine foods, that helped the people in Darfur and Kordofan, Sudan survive during the 1984-1985 famine. Four types of explants prepared from green mature zygotic embryos were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium augmented with 1-5 mg/L 6-benzyladenine (BA). The highest number of shoots per explant (14.3±0.9) was achieved on MS medium supplemented with 3 mg/L BA, while the highest shoot length [(3.5±0.4) cm] was obtained with 1 mg/L BA. The shoot cluster, when subcultured to its same medium, significantly increased the rate of shoot multiplication by the end of the third subculture. The maximum mean number of shoots per explant (86.5±3.6) was produced after three multiplication cycles on 3 mg/L BA-supplemented medium. In vitro induced shoots were excised and rooted on half strength MS medium fortified with 0.25 mg/L indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) to obtain complete plantlets. B. senegalensis-regenerated plantlets obtained in vitro for the first time, were hardened and 95% survived under greenhouse conditions.