Cultivation of soapwort plants (Saponaria officinalis L.) in in vitro cultures

Saponaria officinalis L. is a medicinal plant from the family Caryophyllaceae. It occurs in most European countries, as well as in North Africa, America and Western Asia. The aim of the study was to find an optimal method of sterilization S. officinalis seeds in order to obtain sterile seedlings and to multiply axillary shoots from nodal explants isolated from them, on MS medium with the addition of growth regulators (RW). In this study, 4 variants of seed sterilization were compared using NaClO at the following concentrations: 1.5% (2), 2% (3) and 2.5% (4) for a period of 11 minutes. The control was a variant in which 70% C2H5OH was used for pre-sterilization for 1 minute (1). The highest percentage of sprouted, seeds and sterile seedlings and the lowest percentage of contamination were obtained in variant (4). As a result of micropropagation of soapwort in in vitro cultures, axillary shoots were formed from nodal explants from axillary buds. The highest percentage of explants with shoots (95%) and callus tissue (48%) and the highest number of shoots from one explant (5.95) were obtained in the second passage on MS medium with the addition of 4 mg.dm-3 BAP and 0.5 mg.dm-3 NAA. Due to the wide possibilities of using soapwort, it is advisable to continue research aimed at developing an optimal and efficient plant regeneration system of this species.