The Application of Essential Oils and Silver Nanoparticles For Sterilization of Bermudagrass Explants in In Vitro Culture

An important part of plant in in vitro techniques is sterilizing of explants and maintaining its aseptic conditions.ideally sterilizing materials should be effective on vast range of microrganisms in low density. nowadays, using compounds such as essential oils (eos) and nanoparticles are applicable in microbiology studies. the main objective of this experiment was to study the substitution probability of silver nano particles (snps), thymol and carvacrol as novel sterilization agents in tissue culture of cynodon dactylon. explants were sterilized with 70% ethanol for 2 min, and then 30% clorox for 15 min. sterilization complementary treatments (snps, thymol and carvacrol) were applied at different concentrations (100 and 200 mg l-1) with exposure times of 30, 60 and 120 min. according to the results, infection of bermudagrass explants was controlled successfully by snps, thymol and carvacrol. examination of various concentrations in different exposure time showed that 200 mg l-1 snps in combination with100 mg l-1 thymol in 60 min inhibited microbial growth. thymol and carvacrol were more effective than snpsin controllingbacteria and fungi contaminations. finally, these novel agents could be used as an alternative to common chemicals treatment for elimination and control of microbial population explants in the in vitro conditions.