The objective of the present work was the selection of cultivar, suitable medium and explant type for callus, root production, ascorbic acid, total ascorbic acid, dehydroascorbic and total protein of non-heading Chinese cabbage in two cultivars 'Caixin' and 'Suzhouqing'. We compared 10 types of MS media supplemented with 0.0, 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 mg/l TDZ; 0.0, 0.25, 0.50 and 1.0 mg/l NAA and 0.0, 5.0, 7.5 and 9.0 mg/l AgNO3 and 5 kinds of explants as embryo, leaf, root, cotyledon and hypocotyl. Maximum frequency of callus fresh weight was recorded with hypocotyl explant, which were cultured on MS + 2.0 mg/l TDZ + 1.0 mg/l NAA + 9.0 mg/l AgNO3 in 'Suzhouqing', optimum callus dry weight was obtained on the same media. The highest result for root fresh and dry weight recorded with 'Caixin' with MS + 3.0 mg/l TDZ + 1.0 mg/l NAA + 9.0 mg/l AgNO3 when we used embryo as explant. The highest ascorbic acid content was found with callus cultured on MS + 1.0 mg/l TDZ + 0.25 mg/l NAA + 5.0 mg/l AgNO3, when used leaf explant in 'Caixin' or root in 'Suzhouqing', and there were no significant difference between them. While the highest value of total AsA content was registered with callus cultured on MS + 2.0 mg/l TDZ + 0.25 mg/l NAA + 5.0 mg/l AgNO3 extracted from cotyledon in 'Caixin'. The highest content of DHA was registered with MS + 2.0 mg/l TDZ + 0.25 mg/l NAA + 5.0 mg/l AgNO3 with cotyledon in 'Caixin'. Also, in 'Caixin' MS + 3.0 mg/l TDZ + 0.25 mg/l NAA + 5.0 mg/l AgNO3 recorded the highest value of total protein content with embryo explant.
Keywords: Ascorbic acid; Callus; Non-heading Chinese cabbage; Root; Tissue culture; Total protein.