International Journal of Environmental & Agriculture Research (IJOEAR) ISSN:[2454-1850] [Vol-3, Issue-11, November- 2017] Page | 9 Acclimatization of KFeFRIM01: A Superior Clone of Labisia pumila var. alata Syafiqah Nabilah, S. B. 1 , Farah Fazwa, M. A. 2 , Siti Suhaila, A. R. 3 , Norhayati, S. 4 , Mohd Zaki, A. 5 , Masitah, M. T. 6 1,2,4-6 Plant Improvement Programme, Forestry Biotechnology Division, Forest Research Institute Malaysia, 52109 Kepong, Selangor, Malaysia 3 Centre for Biotechnology Bioentrepreneur, Forestry Biotechnology Division, Forest Research Institute Malaysia, 52109 Kepong, Selangor, Malaysia Abstract— Labisia pumila or commonly known as kacip fatimah is one of the popular medicinal plant in Malaysia. The constituents of this plant have been reported to possess anti cancer, antioxidant, anti-obesity and anti-inflammatory properties. The growth and production of L. pumila is greatly influenced by the environmental condition such as shade, humidity and growing media. In this study, the survivality of L. pumila var. alata (KFeFRIM01) plantlets derived from tissue culture technique using temporary immersion system were analyzed during pre and post acclimatization process. The plantlets were pre acclimatize in different potting media namely 100% sand and 100% jiffy and grown in plastic growth chamber with different percentage of shade (0%, 50% and 70%). After a month, the plants were transferred to the nursery for post acclimatization. Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the survivality of plants placed under different percentage of shade (70% and 50%), suitable growing media and watering requirement per day. The growth of the plants such as plant height, number of leaves, leaf length and leaf width were recorded during the acclimatization process. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to evaluate the survivality and growth of this plant during the acclimatization process. KFeFRIM01 was found to grow better in 0% shade compared to 50% shade and 70% shade. However, there were no significant difference recorded in the usage of two potting medium (100% sand and 100% jiffy) on the growth of KFeFRIM01 during pre acclimatization process. While in post acclimatization, KFeFRIM01 placed under 50% shade produce better growth in term of leaves number (8.44a ± 0.20), leaf length (6.13a ± 0.14) and leaf width (3.17a ± 0.06) compared to 70% shade. KFeFRIM01 plants planted in treatment 1-top soil: leaf compost: sand (2:3:1) gave the highest growth performance in all parameter measured. Whereas, KFeFRIM01 plants that watered twice per day (9AM & 4PM) have greater plant height (8.83a ± 0.34) and leaves number (7.53a ± 0.39) compared to plants watered once per day. The findings from this study are essential for mass production of L. pumila using tissue culture technology in future as a successful protocol for acclimatization of this plants obtained. Keywords— adaptation, environmental condition, plant growth, survivality, clonal propagation. I. INTRODUCTION Labisia pumila is an herbal plant from Primulaceae family. The plant usually found in the tropical forest of Asian countries. This plant favors shady area and humus rich soil (Sunarno, 2005). Labisia pumila is very synonym in treating women health and due to that numerous of L. pumila based products are sold in the market. The most common method of L. pumila propagation is through cuttings (Aminah et al., 2008). However, for large scale production of planting materials, tissue culture technique using temporary immersion system (RITA™) is preferable (Syafiqah et al., 2016). The process of tissue culture technique involved surface sterilization, culture initiation, shoots multiplication, in vitro or ex vitro rooting and acclimatization. The acclimatization process is a prerequisite in many species grown in vitro to ensure high plant survivality and vigorous growth when transferred to soil. This is because, in lab, tissue culture plantlets were developed within culture vessels under low level of light, high humidity, sufficient sugar and nutrients for heterotrophic growth (Preece & Sutter, 1991). Therefore, a step by step of acclimatization process is required for the plantlets to prevent transfer shock. KFeFRIM01 is the superior clone of L. pumila var. alata discovered by Farah Fazwa et al. (2012) through clonal trial study. This clone has vigorous growth in terms of plant size and leaf number as well as high in total phenolic content (TPC) which act as antioxidant properties that essential to prevent free radical damage to our body. The clone was mass produced through in vitro propagation using RITA™. Thus, to ensure high survivality of the plants at ex vitro condition, a good acclimatization practice must be considered. To date, there is lack of study reported on the acclimatization of L. pumila to ex vitro condition. Therefore, this study was conducted with the objective to determine the suitable requirements needed by the plants during pre and post acclimatization