Sodium metabisulfite? It is used in wine making to sterilize bottles and fermentation equipment. It breaks down into harmless components. Might be worth a try.

Hi Valentina, I am looking at a similar sterilization issue but with seagrass seeds instead of leaves. Have you though about using UV-light?.

Yes, but I think that UV-light can damage surface cells, so maybe a chemical cleaning with sodium hypochlorite could be better. But I am still looking for the best method. Other ideas?

What about potassium permanganate? Someone has used this for surface sterilization?

Hi Valentina,

Following are some commonly used plant surface-sterilizing chemicals:

1) Sodium hypochlorite (upto 0.5 - 1.0%);

2) 70% ethanol;

3) Calcium hypochlorite (upto 3.5%);

4) Hydrogen peroxide (upto 30-35%);

5) Plant Preservative Mixture (PPM) (its a biocide, 0.5–2.0 mL/ L of medium)

No. 3, 4 and 5 are comparatively less injurious to plant tissues. Rest all are phytotoxic and a balance between concentration and time must be determined for the type of tissue you are going to expose.

Best

Dola.

Thank you Dola for your advices I want to try these methods and understand which is the best!

Keep posting Valentina and let us know how it is working. Best Wishes to you.

The simplest and best method would be saline washing! Save remove a bit of water it does not harm your chemical constituents. You can dip for about 30 mins at Room temp.

Hypochlorite, permanganate, UV are dangerous for your phyto chemicals! Pl do not use.

70% ethanol would extract some phytochemicals - do not try.

Sorry for my question, but what does it mean "saline washing" ?

I work with marine seagrass, so Is it sufficient to wash with tap water, changing salinity concentration, to "sterilize" tissue?

And of course, thanks to everyone for the advices!

Wash with sterile saline water! And then with sterile distilled water

good luck

There are a couple of efective ways not mentioned above that will not damage the tissue:

1. Super-oxidized water (the way hospitals wash and sterlize equipment)

2. X-ray

Of course a saline wash could be the acceptable and cheapest way as far as they were lettuces to eat. However you need sterile material.

Cheers.