Enhanced Surface Disinfection and Subsequent Growth in Plant Micropropagation by Copper Nanoparticles

Copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) have been used in many fields including medicine, environmental science, and cosmetic chemistry; however, its application in plant micropropagation, particularly in surface disinfection and subsequent growth, has not been well documented. In this chapter, the surface disinfection of CuNPs on ex vitro begonia as compared to those of other disinfectants and the residue of copper which was significant in indicating the role of CuNPs not only in explant disinfection but also in the subsequent growth of explants including somatic embryogenesis, antioxidant enzymes, carbohydrate content of somatic embryos, and plantlet growth were also investigated. Besides that, CuNPs were used to disinfect the leaf and petiole explants of African violet. In addition, using CuNPs to sterilize the explants provided the nutritional Cu and maintained the activity of the antioxidant enzymes at a moderate level, thus helping to stimulate the shoot regeneration significantly to be more effective than the control treatment using common disinfectants.