Indian Journal of Agricultural Research

  • Chief EditorV. Geethalakshmi

  • Print ISSN 0367-8245

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Indian Journal of Agricultural Research, volume 49 issue 6 (december 2015) : 516-521

Efficacy of organic solvents for medium term storage of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) pollen

K. Sunil Kumar*, R.K. Mathur, D. S. Sparjanbabu
1<p>ICAR-Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research, West Godavari District,&nbsp;<br /> Pedavegi&ndash;534 450, Andhra Pradesh, India.</p>
Cite article:- Kumar* Sunil K., Mathur R.K., Sparjanbabu S. D. (2015). Efficacy of organic solvents for medium term storage of oil palm(Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) pollen . Indian Journal of Agricultural Research. 49(6): 516-521. doi: 10.18805/ijare.v49i6.6678.

The oil palm is the richest source of vegetable oil in the world. The hybrid nature of crop necessitates artificial hybridization between proven parent palms which in turn require the pollen from male parent to be collected and stored without loss of viability for sufficiently long period. Reports   suggested that pollen grains of various taxa could be successfully preserved in different organic solvents. In the present study, attempt was made to   evaluate the suitability  of organic solvents to store the oil palm pollen at 0 to -5oC temperature. Among the five solvents used, there was significant variation for viability and germination percentages. Viability was the maximum for pollen stored in Diethyl ether (90.45 %) as well as in n-Hexane (88.41%) after 200 days of storage.  Viability of pollen stored in Chloroform and Acetone were moderate and in case of Methyl alcohol, complete loss of viability was observed. With respect to pollen germination in vitro, similar trend was observed. The trend was same at different intervals/period of storage. This was confirmed through in vivo pollination and fruits set studies. Thus, present method indicated that it is feasible to store oil palm pollen in non polar solvents beyond 200 days without considerable loss of viability or germination.


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