Iranians use tissue culture techniques to grow flowers

Isfahan Prov. Nov 17, IRNA - Iranian researchers at the Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute in Isfahan, have used tissue culture techniques to grow Viola odorata. Tissue culture can be used as a tool for conservation and commercialization of Viola odorata because of its intensive use in the local market. Mahmoud Atrashi, the head of the institute, said researchers intend to mass produce the plant and extract its essence, which has many applications in pharmaceutical industry. He explained that Viola odorata contains cyclotides, which have anticancer properties and can be used for treating breast and oral cancers, diabetes, bronchitis and asthma. Plant tissue culture is a collection of techniques used to maintain or grow plant cells, tissues or organs under sterile conditions on a nutrient culture of known composition. Plant tissue culture is widely used to produce clones of a plant in a method known as micropropagation. Different techniques in plant tissue culture may offer advantages over traditional methods of propagation, including the production of replicas of plants that produce good flowers, fruits or have other desirable traits, to quickly produce mature plants and the production of multiples of plants in the absence of seeds or pollinators to produce seeds./end