Iles-iles (Amorphophallus muelleri Blume) of the Araceae is a source of carbohydrate with a high content of glucomannan which is very useful in preventing several diseases like diabetes, high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, etc. In industry, the tuber is used as a raw material for paper pulp, textile, gum, celluloid, food and cosmetics. Generally, iles-iles is propagated by splitting tubers, bulbils or leaf cuttings, but this method can not yield high quality planting materials and sometimes may carry along many diseases. In this investigation, an in vitro method for shoot regeneration of iles-iles from petiole explants was developed. Sterilization of the explants was carried out in 0.05% HgCl2 for 20 min. after dipping in 70% ethanol and Tween 20 solution. Leaf petioles about 1 cm in length were cultured on Murashige & Skoog (MS) medium with a pH of 5.8 containing 30 g sucrose and 2.5 g Gelrite agar. The formation of adventives shoots was induced on MS medium containing 1, 2, and 4 mg/L Benzyl Amino Purine (BAP) either with or without the addition of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.5 mg/L Naphthalene Acetic Acid (NAA). Each treatment was done on 10 explants. All cultures were incubated at 26°C on a 16-h photoperiod with an illumination of 30 μmol m-2 sec-1 provided by 40-W cool white inflorescent lights. The highest rate of shoot multiplication averaging 19 shoots per explants was achieved within 3 months on MS medium containing 2 mg/L BAP. However, the best shoot elongation was found on MS medium containing 2 mg/L BAP and 0.2 mg/L NAA.© 2008 Jurusan Biologi FMIPA UNS Surakarta..Key words: Amorphophalus muelleri Blume, leaf petiole culture, benzyl amino purine (BAP), naphthalene acetic acid (NAA).

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Amorphophallus muelleri Blume (Araceae) is valued for its glucoman content for use infood industry (heathy diet food), paper industry, pharmacy and cosmetics. The cultivationof A. muelleri is hampered by limited genetic quality of seed. The species is triploid(2n=3x=39), the seed is developed apomictically, and pollen production is low. Thespecies is only propagated vegetatively. This may explain that the species is difficultto breed conventionally and genetic variability in the existing landraces cultivars israther limited. Conservation of this species, therefore, is important for availability of thespecies in the future use of this plant. The objective of present research is to increasegenetic variation by induce mutation using gamma-rays irradiation of shoot culturesof A. muelleri and to identify DNA polymorphism induced by gamma irradiation usingrandom amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), so the mutants produced can be used forbreeding purposes and for conservation program. Results of the experiment showedthat gamma irradiation less than 5 gray was effective to induce mutation of A. muelleri.Four RAPD primers generated 35 scorable bands with 100% polymorphic bands. Sizeof the bands varied from 350bp to 2.0kbp. Clustering analysis was performed based onRAPD profiles using the UPGMA method. The range of genetic distance among individualgenotypes was from from 0.00 to 0.72, while genetic variance of the population was0.21 + 0.13. The eighteen genotypes were proof to be mutants. The mutants producedin this experiment could be used as new germplasms for breeding purposes as well asfor use in conservation strategy

Aloe vera (L.) Burm.f. of the Asphodelaceae, which probably originated in North Africa is a very short-stemmed succulent, perennial plant of 80-100 cm in height. Today, it is widely grown in the tropics worldwide. It has long been used as a traditional herbal medicine and as cosmetic materials since thousand of years BC in Egypt, China, Greece, etc. It can be used externally to treat various skin conditions and It was useful for curing diabetics, cancer, HIV, even for stress and drug addicts The biologically active components found in the juice of aloe leaves are anthraquinones, acemannan, andprostaglandins. Chunks of aloe pulp are popular as beverages in Asia. Aloe has long been propagated by splitting its off-shoots, and this may account for its narrow genetic variations. In this research, genetic variations of A. vera and A. vera var. Chinensis, were induced by gamma irradiation. In vitro shoots of Aloe were irradiated with gamma ray at the dosage of 10-60 gy, then propagated on Murashige and Skoog (MS) solid medium containing 1 mg/l BAP. The results showed that shootlets of A. vera var. Chinensis were still alive up to 40 gy but the leaves became stiffer, while A. vera only tolerated irradiation up to 20gy. At 50-60 gy, all cultures died after 2 months. Visual observation on irradiated in vitro shoots showed that new variants appeared at the dosage of 20 gy, although in very low frequencies. Leaves became half green and half white in A. vera and white-green-white in A. vera var. Chinensis. Confirmation whether those variants were of genetic or morphological origin needs to be further investigated.