Analysis Of Mimosa Pigra

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

1.1.1 Profile of Mimosa pigra.

Mimosa pigra (Leguminosae) is an invasive species. M. pigra is a spreading, multi stemmed, thorny shrub usually up to 2 m tall, but occasionally up to 6 m, with a maximum lifespan of about 5 years. The plant is evergreen and bears bipinnate, sensitive leaves, up to 18 cm in length. Recurved spines that achieve to 7 mm long are located on the undersides of the petioles, petioules and stems.

Source : PlantSystematic.org

Figure 1: The fruits of Mimosa pigra. The inflorescences, containing up to 100 flowers are spherical which are about 1 cm across and pink violence. The species is rare because it consists of androdioecious with both male and hermaphrodite

Fruit size depends on the number of seeds and a parenchymatous pulp that develops around each seed. The growth volume curve of this species is sigmoidal (Simmonds, 1953). According to Daniells et al., (2001), the edible bananas are a mix of wild and cultivated for species and hybrids involving M. acuminata and M. balbisiana which M. acuminata is the most widespread of species in section of Musa in the modern day. The centre of diversity is thought to be either Malaysia (Simmonds, 1962) or Indonesia (Horry et al., 1997). The fruits of wild bananas contain many seeds so that this species is mostly not suitable for food industry but the other part of this plant’s species still can be used

Plantlets produced by in vitro method were better than those which were generated by in vivo method. This is because they could live longer, more than 90 days. Contaminations in culture revealed that fungi and bacteria are the main polluters. It was found that scarification and small crack in banana seed coat and sown in mixture of soil and sand (2:1) increased the germination rate of seed, but immersion of banana seed with the use of water bath technique did not increase the germination rate (Kamaludin et al.,