As an endemic medicinal woody plant in China, Cyclocarya paliurus (Batal.) Iljinskajais is being extensively planted for leaf-use. Operational system of tissue culture mainly depends on tender explants only being attained in short spring. The aims of this study were to determine the additions of plant growth regulators matching to seasonal explants for inducing adventitious shoots in C. paliurus. Explants collected at three stages (March-May, stage I; June-August stageII; September-November, stage III) were cultured in MS (Murashige and Skoog medium), supplemented with gradient concentrations of 6-benzylademine (6-BA) (2.0-12.0 mg<middle dot>L- 1) for shoot induction. The relationships of phytohomones between endogenesis in explants and exogenous addition in the medium were also analyzed by using artificial neural networks (ANN) for the optimal concentration of 6-BA. The optimal adventitious shoot induction happened on MS medium supplemented 6-BA with concentrations of 4.0 mg<middle dot>L- 1, 6.0 mg<middle dot>L- 1 and 12.0 mg<middle dot>L- 1 for explants at stage I, II and III, and their induction ratios reached 92.9%, 96.67% and 82.33%, respectively. A model constructed by ANN based on a set of validation data, displayed good agreement with observed results. Also, the combination addition (0.5 mg<middle dot>L- 1 6-BA + 1.5 mg<middle dot>L- 1 IBA + 0.03 mg<middle dot>L- 1 TIBA) to MS for shoot multiplication attained 3.20 of multiplication coefficient. Although rooting induction achieved to 66.67% when supplemented 11.0 mg<middle dot>L- 1 IBA (3-indolebutyric acid) to WPM (woody plant medium), no plantlets survived after acclimatization. Therefore, more efforts should be done to build a feasible tissue culture system in C. paliurus.
