ENHANCEMENT OF MANGOSTEEN (Garcinia mangostana) ORGANOGNENESIS USING EXPLANTS FOR ITS BENEFICIAL DEMANDS.

Mangosteen, Garcinia mangostana L. is the most delicious tropical fruit and has been called the 'the queen of fruits' or the 'finest fruits of the world'. Mangosteen has various beneficial properties in different parts of the plant. They possess various antioxidants that are responsible for treating cardio problems. Moreover, it shows positive for the antifungal and anti-inflammatory properties which heal several disorders. In order to make use of these medicinal properties and nutritional benefits from Mangosteen, the plant production should be higher. On the other hand, rejuvenation of the plants has not been fully successful since the plants are growing and fruiting slowly. Plant propagation through seeds has several problems. A plant grown from seed will fruit for the first time after 15-17 years. The plant bears fruit only once or twice a year and each fruit have only one or two good seeds which are very tedious for the traditional propagation. In addition, Mangosteen seeds are recalcitrant which will not survive for long time, therefore continuous plant propagations by seeds are difficult. Vegetative propagation has not been fully successful as the succeeded plants grow very slowly; they will be weak, not uniform, and slow flowering. Hence, the mass propagation of uniform, good performance and continuous annual supply of plant material can be achieved through Micropropagation. In this study, the explants survival and the initiation of survived explants were recorded after various trials using the seeds and leaves as explants.