Sago: An Alternative Cheap Gelling Agent for Potato In Vitro Culture

Sago, a processed (gelatinized) edible starch, was successfully used as a gelling agent in culture medium. The efficacy of sago-gelled (80 g dm-3) medium was studied in ten potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) genotypes during micropropagation and minimal growth conservation. Sago starch provided a firm gelling surface throughout the entire culture period, and fostered optimum plantlet growth in terms of shoot height, number of nodes per plant, number of leaves and fresh mass. No softening of the sago-gelled medium occurred over prolonged (six months) storage. The study showed that sago starch could be used as a substitute to agar in culture medium to substantially reduce the medium cost.