effects of aqueous and ethanolic extract of rhazya stricta on control ofdate contamination under in vitro conditions

Background: contamination of tissue culture medium is a common problem that causes the loss of some or all cultures. despite all measures taken in tissue culture laboratories to prevent culture contamination, bacterial and fungi contamination is still a significant problem under in vitro culture. achieving a suitable method for controlling the contaminants in the in vitro culture medium will be a considerable development in the micropropagation of dates. objectives: we aimed to investigate the effects of different aqueous and ethanolic extracts of rhazya strictaon the disinfection of dates under in vitro culture. methods: a factorial test was performed based on a completely randomized design with three replications. the study included three factors: plant organs (leaves and roots), solvent type (ethanolic and aqueous), and extract concentration (0, 25, 50, and 75 mg/ml). results: the lowest contamination (38.33%) was seen in the treatment with ethanolic root extract (50 ppm). in comparison, the control and the treatment containing aqueous leaf extract (with concentrations of 0 and 25 ppm) resulted in the highest contamination rate (100%) in tissue culture conditions. conclusions: the alcoholic extract of medicinal plants can be used to disinfect the explants and the substrate.