Abstract:
Pitaya plants have been proven to have the medical importance, such as reduce the
cholesterol level, acts as anticancer agent, and so on. To date, research have been
done to increase the number of Pitaya plants for commercializing purposes. The
objectives of this study were to establish the tissue culture protocol of Pitaya, to
determine the best medium and also to determine the best concentration for shoot
proliferations of Pitaya. Pitaya Hylocereus costaricensis cultured were successfully
established on MS and BS medium, from germinated seeds. The seeds were surface
sterilized with 70% ethanol for S seconds followed by immersion in 3 % Clorox and
added with few drops of Tween 20 for 20 minutes. Seven days old of germinated
seeds were subcultured on MS or BS medium, with combination of auxin or
cytokinins. The cytokinins used were 2ip, kinetin, TDZ and Zeatin, where as NAA
was the only auxin used. The concentration of the phytohormones used were 0, 1, 3
and S mg/L, respectively.