Abstract

Salvia, the largest genus of Lamiaceae, includes about 900 species, widespread throughout the world. This genus is represented, in Turkish flora, by 88 species and 93 taxa, 45 of which are endemic. Some members of this genus are of economic importance since they have been used as flavoring agents in perfumery and cosmetics. Despite the medicinal potential of plants in Turkey being considerable, knowledge of this area and studies on these crops is scarce. Including Salvia L. species, in some medicinal plants low callus production, especially leave-based ones, is the main problem in in vitro culture, due to phenolic compounds. Callus induction, therefore, from plant's non-specialized tissues, for example, seeds, is inevitable. The six species of Salvia L. growing naturally in Anatolia (Salvia aetopis L., Salvia cadmica Boiss., Salvia candidissima Vahl ssp. occidentalis Hedge, Salvia cryptantha Montbret etAucher ex Bentham (endemic to Turkey), Salvia tomentosa Miller  and Salvia verticillata L. ssp. verticillata L.) were selected. Callus of the seeds of the aforementioned species was initiated on MS basal media supplemented with combinations of indole-butyric acid (IBA) and picloram. Varied mass callus induction was observed in all media but, Salvia tomentosa Miller was found to be most efficient species in callusing. Moreover, applying the Lefort method, the extracted genomic DNA for all the samples was pure and ideal.

Key words: Callus, genomic DNA extraction, in vitro culture, Salvia L. species