Abstract

Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis (Park.) Fosberg) is a woody tropical tree. In addition to the nutritious value, breadfruit is also a precious medicinal source, because every part of it contains many natural compounds with biological activity. With the aim of providing a pharmaceutical source cond food with high yield, as well as the short harvert time, we examined the effects of the concentration of benzyl adenine (BA) on the in vitro culture of young female breadfruit flowers. The results showed that in the first phase of the culture, the concentration of 5 mg/L BA stimulated an increase in size of each female flowers, especially in the calyx. The increasing concentration of 10 mg/L BA stimulated the formation of callus in the calyx of each female flowers. Roles of respiration rate and endogenus hormones were discussed to understand the physiological changes in the in vitro culture of young female breadfruit flowers.