Home⇛Isabela State University Linker The Journal of Emerging Research in Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry⇛vol. 6 no. 1 (2026)

Multiple Shoot and Leaf Induction on Stevia rebaudiana through in vitro Plant Tissue Culture Technique

John Michael A. Guerzon | Leila Mary A. Ayban | Ma. Cassandra T. Espiritu | Lara Annika Paula E. Namoca

Discipline: Plant Sciences

 

Abstract:

Stevia rebaudiana, a natural sweetener 100 to 300 times sweeter than sucrose, is gaining recognition as a sugar substitute with health benefits for individuals with diabetes and obesity. The high demand for stevia-based products has led to supply challenges, prompting research to enhance the plant’s growth characteristics and address affordability concerns for marginalized sectors and health-conscious consumers, much as targeted formulation of growth-enhancing inputs has improved growth and yield in other crops. The study employed plant tissue culture techniques, utilizing 90 explants distributed across five media formulations with varying concentrations of 6-benzylaminopurine (BA) and gibberellic acid-3 (GA3), to assess shoot number, leaf number, and shoot height at the termination stage. One-Way ANOVA revealed significant treatment effects on all three parameters: shoot number (F (4,10) = 9.13, p = 0.002), leaf number (F (4,10) = 14.09, p < 0.001), and shoot height (F (4,10) = 3.63, p = 0.045). Tukey’s posthoc test identified MS + 1 ppm GA3 + 2 ppm BA as the best-performing formulation for shoot (3.89 ± 0.69) and leaf (14.5 ± 0.44) production—roughly 2- fold and 44% increases over the hormone-free control—while MS + 2 ppm GA3 + 2 ppm BA produced the tallest shoots (30.7 ± 5.15 mm, about 32–37% taller than the control). These findings indicate that BA primarily drives shoot and leaf multiplication while GA3 contributes to elongation, underscoring the role of cytokinin-gibberellin supplementation in enhancing economically valuable traits and improving the efficiency and scalability of commercial Stevia rebaudiana micropropagation.



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