Jakarta, April 26, 2022 --- SEAMEO BIOTROP held the second BIOTROP to School webinar series with the theme of "Tissue Culture of Ornamental Plants Leaves", the activity was held on April 26, 2022. This theme was chosen due to current trend in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic where many people are interested planting ornamental plants in their homes. For this reason, tissue culture methods could become an alternative to maintain the sustainability of these plants in the wild.

In his remarks, Director of SEAMEO BIOTROP, Zulhamsyah Imran said that ornamental plant tissue culture is a form of enrichment and utilization of real value from various types of biodiversity in Indonesia. "Tissue culture can also save the biodiversity in the wild,". 725 online participants join this webinar consisting of students, university students, educational staff, hobbyists, and tissue culture practitioners from various regions in Indonesia.

Many activities are carried out by the community to pass the time during the Covid-19 pandemic era. One of them is channeling or finding a new hobby at home. One of the most picked up hobby is caring for ornamental plants. According to data from e-commerce in Indonesia, in 2020 the number of ornamental plant transactions increased four times compared to 2019.

The SEAMEO BIOTROP tissue culture laboratory is a pilot unit for the production of tissue culture seeds for students, university students, education staff, and the general public who want to learn entrepreneurship in the field of tissue culture. Through this event, Zulhamsyah hopes that the spirit of young entrepreneurs can be awakened and to be more aware of business opportunities.

In her presentation, Dr Erina Sulistiani, Manager of Product Development and Innovation Department as well as tissue culture researcher at SEAMEO BIOTROP explained the stages of tissue culture of leaf ornamental plants. Starting from the equipment preparation, preparation of culture media, sterilization of explants, shoot initiation, multiplication, root induction, plantet acclimatization, and seedling growth.

Tissue culture is described by Dr Erina is a methods for plant cultivation in a controlled and aseptic environment (in vitro) so that the plant parts can regenerate into a complete plant again.