Effectiveness of Bio-Catharantin Induction to Increase Red Spinach (Alternanthera amoena Voss.) Production

Abstract

Red spinach (Alternanthera amoena Voss.) is a plant with high nutritional value and contains anthocyanin compounds that act as antioxidant compounds to prevent the formation of free radicals in the body, besides that anthocyanin can also treat anemia. The increase in demand for red spinach in the market has not been matched by the amount of production. The productivity of spinach can be increased by polyploid induction. The advantages of polyploid plants are increased quality (taste, aroma, and other metabolites), size of vegetative and generative structures, pest resistance, and more adaptability. Based on the latest research, it was found that Bio-Catharantin as a periwinkle leaf extract product can induce polyploidization in shallot (Allium cepa L.) and watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) plants. This study was carried out from July to August 2021. The treatments include control, seed induction by Bio-Catharantin 0.2% solution, and seed induction by Bio-Catharantin 0.4% solution for 12 hours, 24 hours, and 48 hours. The results showed that induction with Bio-Catharantin in plants was followed by changes in morphological characters. The results of ANOVA-Duncan analysis showed that there was a significant difference in seed induction by Bio-Catharantin 0.2% solution for 12 hours treatment. Chromosomal observations could not be identified because the chromosome size was not visible and hardly seen under the microscope. Flow cytometry test showed that plants treated with Bio-Catharantin were unable to produce polyploidization of red spinach. The result of the chlorophyll test is in line with the morphological characters.

Poiploidy induction of Indonesian Black Rice Oryza sativa L. Var. Cempo Ireng with Bio-catharantine

“…Several studies on the application of biocatharanthine to polyploidy induction reported the viability performance of the subjected plant after the treatments with no toxicity symptoms (Rohmah et al, 2022;Shafura et al, 2022).…”

Untitled

“…One type of spinach is red spinach (Amaranthus tricolor L.) originating from tropical America (Sumarmi et al, 2020). Red spinach contains high anthocyanins and functions to prevent the formation of free radicals (Shafura et al, 2022). The results showed that red spinach contained 6350 ppm anthocyanins in the leaves and 2480 ppm in the stems (Pebriantiet al, 2015).…”