There are different imported mounting mediuns commercialized at a relative high price for producing permanent slides of stained plant sections. These mounting mediuns become harder as they dry and preserve the good conditions of the plant material for indetermined time. The most used mouting mediuns to plant anatomy are: Canada balsam, Euparal®, Entellan® and Permount®. Aiming to reduce costs of producing permanent plant anatomy slides, alternative mediuns produced by brazilian industries, used mostly in artesanal work, were tested. Among the different synthetic mediuns tested, the verniz vitral incolor 500® showed properties compatible to be used as an efficient mounting medium, in substitution to the imported synthetic resins, at a lower cost and without alterations in the routine process. The verniz vitral incolor 500® allowed the production of permanent slides with plant organs sectioned hand free as well in rotatory microtome, after paraffin or historesin embedding, keeping unaltered the tissue and color charactheristics. The results showed that the tradicional resins can be replaced by the verniz vitral incolor 500®, not compromising the quality of the slides.
verniz vitral incolor 500®; mounting medium; plant anatomy; synthetic resin
