Plant Preservative Mixture (PPM), Plant Cell Technology

PPM™ is a heat-stable preservative/biocide which can be used to effectively prevent or reduces microbial contamination in plant tissue culture.

At optimum doses, PPM™, which stands for Plant Preservative Mixture™, is an extremely effective Preservative/Biocide, yet does not impair in vitro seed germination, callus proliferation and callus regeneration.

PPM™ prevents the germination of both bacteria and fungi spores. It is heat stable and therefore can be autoclaved with the media.
PPM™ can be, and should be used as a standard ingredient in plant tissue culture media, and is also substantially less expensive than commonly used antibiotics.

While PPM™ was principally designed to inhibit airborne contamination, waterborne contamination and contamination introduced from human contact, it can also — in many cases — be used to reduce endogenous contamination.

Despite the most stringent use of sterile techniques, the contamination of plant cell and plant tissue cultures remains a persistent problem that can result in losses ranging from small number of cultures to the loss of whole batches.