Brazil is one of the world largest producers of bananas, with a planted and harvested area of 504.586 ha in 2006 (IBGE, 2008). Most of the banana plantations are still cultivated using the traditional rooted young plants, but other methods of propagation such as in vitro micropropagation are constantly being developed and improved, to increase the multiplication rate in short time and to improve the quality of the seedlings production. However, contamination is a major problem of this technique. This study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of decontamination of banana explants, using different concentrations of active chlorine during the sterilization of the explants. The experimental design was randomized and consisted of five treatments and five repetitions, each one of 5 explants, at different concentrations of active chlorine, T1 (control) without active chlorine, T2 (0,5%), T3 (1,0%), T4 (1.5%) and T5 (2%). The contaminations were subjected to analysis of variance and means compared by Tukey test at 5% probability. The results showed that the highest efficiency among the treatments was the immersion of explants in sodium hypochlorite solution with 2% active chlorine, and the doses tested were not toxic to the explants, allowing normal development of them, thus concluding that concentration can be used to control contamination in banana micropropagation.
Plant Cell Culture; active chlorine; Musa sp
