The effect of methyl jasmonate on growth, stevioside and rebaudioside A production in Stevia rebaudiana shoot culture using mist bioreactor

Abstract

Steviol glycosides (SG) from Stevia rebaudiana have been used as natural sweeteners to substitute sucrose. SG production naturally needs large biomass. Therefore, it requires large area of cultivation. In vitro cultivation can be used as an alternative to propagate Stevia, as well as for increasing the production of SG. In this experiment, we conducted Stevia propagation in bioreactor and induced SG production through methyl jasmonate (MeJa) elicitation. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of MeJA on plant growth and SG contents in Stevia shoot cultivated using mist bioreactor. Elicitation was carried out by MeJa spraying for 30 min every 6 h. In treatment A, we used 10 μM MeJa for 72 h and 100 μM MeJa for 24 h for treatment B. The results showed that treatment A gave higher increase in shoot growth (485%), biomass production (547%), and relative growth rate (0.13) compared to treatment B. There was no significant difference in stevioside content among treatments (A and B) and controls, meanwhile treatment B produced rebaudioside A (0.0113 mg/g) higher than treatment A (0.0062 mg/g). We concluded that treatment A was better in inducing growth and treatment B could be used to increase rebaudioside A.