JP/SLAMET SUSANTO

Growers, propagators and lovers of orchids in Indonesia can celebrate thanks to Endang Semiarti’s breakthrough research into molecular genetics and tissue culture techniques.

The 47-year-old university lecturer has succeeded in speedily multiplying orchids, using a gene transfer method.

With conventional methods, one new orchid embryo can produce one bud and one embryo in a year, and only after three years can the orchid bloom. But by using new biotechnology gene transfer techniques, one embryo can produce 90 buds, which can start blooming within just two years.

As well as being exciting news for Indonesia, the advances made by Endang, a lecturer at the biology school of Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta, have been accepted internationally. Gene transfer was the overall winner at the Nagoya International Orchid Congress Encouragement Award 2009 in Japan in March, after Endang’s findings were presented to 159 experts from 36 countries.

It hasn’t been easy getting to this stage, though. It took eight years of research, trial and error, and setbacks to get this far.

Endang, the mother of Cahya Kurnia Fusianto, 21, and Prieta Opika, 17, started to research orchid gene transfer in 2001. “For the first three years I almost failed because my research wasn’t successful,” she said. Her research grants from Japan came and went. Family money and her salary were also absorbed by her research expenses. But Endang persevered, and in 2004 her research started to bear fruit. She has continued to develop the technology ever since, helped by Ari Indrianto, from the UGM biology school, and Aziz Purwantoro from the UGM school of agriculture.

This gene transfer method has been applied to the orchid Phalaenopsis amabilis, using a gene from the Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress) plant. After the gene transfer, the orchid embryo is planted in an ordinary medium. Four days later, the plants are washed using antibiotics to block the growth of any bacteria.

The orchid is then replanted in an antibiotic medium, washed again, and then planted for a final time. If the process has been successful, the successful plants will be green; the unsuccessful ones will turn brown before dying.

The technology has good commercial potential, Endang said, because “the technique is easy and can be duplicated”.

“So for the sake of the orchid export business, the flowers can be produced in large numbers and the process can be continuous.”

All the procedures have to be carried out in a sterile environment.

“After several months, we carry out a test and at the end of the process we may find the plant is contaminated,” Endang said. “We have to review the process again from the beginning and that often happens.”

When Endang began her research, the percentage of successful gene transfers was very low, with only two out of every 100 embryos growing successfully after the gene transfer. But now, with the additional extract of fruits, the success rate has rocketed to an encouraging 20 percent.

Endang’s love of orchids is tied closely to her concerns about the state of orchids growing in Indonesia. Of the 20,000 varieties of orchids in the world, 5,000 varieties are believed to be in Indonesia. However, just 1,500 have been identified – and many of these may never be known.

“It is said that some orchids in Indonesia will have become extinct before they can be identified,” she said.

She argues that because the country is so rich in orchids, the community has never seriously considered their conservation, seeking only to make a profit from them. To fulfil the needs of the orchid export industry, many varieties of the flowers have been taken directly from the forest.

Endang cannot disguise her exasperation: “What do we want? Do we wait for orchids to become extinct because no effort has been made toward conservation?”

The researcher hopes that in the future, gene transfer with orchids can help conservation while still providing profits to businesses. At the moment, the demand for orchids in Indonesia is high and market demand needs to be continuously met while maintaining high levels of production.

“Singapore and Taiwan, with their advanced technologies, have been able to achieve a bigger profit for their economies,” said Endang. But she believes that Indonesian orchids produced using the gene transfer method will be popular and keenly sought after.

The Phalaenopsis amabilis orchid at the heart of the gene transfer method (also referred to as The Moon) has become a magic flower for many in Jakarta, enhancing national pride. Two other superior varieties of the species are the titun arum (Amorphopalus titanium) and the white melati flower or Arabian jasmine (Jasminum sambac), known as a national flower.

For Endang, her journey into orchid research has provided her with valuable rewards. The qualities she has had to learn to get this far have been patience, the ability to undertake painstaking work, and most importantly, to never give in.

“That’s the wisdom which I have got from orchids,” she said. “To know orchids, you need to be patient and not yield an inch.”

In the future, Endang only hopes that the research world will receive attention from all authorities, especially the government, as she believes that more research will be central in helping to advance the nation, pointing out that breakthroughs like hers show that research in Indonesia should be given higher priority.

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