Accumulation of phenolic acids in in vitro cultures of Anethum graveolens and Schisandra chinensis on Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with picloram and BAP

Phenolic acids possess important therapeutic and/or cosmetics values, including immunostimulating, antiaggregatory, anticancer and antioxidant activities. Our earlier studies demonstrated that cultures of both A. graveolens and S. chinensis maintained on the Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium containing NAA (auxin) and BAP (cytokinin) produced considerable amounts of these compounds [1,2]. The aim of the present studies was to determine the effect of other combinations of plant growth regulators (PGRs), picloram (auxin) and BAP on the accumulation of phenolic acids. Cultures of both plants were maintained on two variants of the MS medium [3] containing auxin and cytokinin in a ratio of 2: 1 (variant I) or 1: 2 (variant II). Methanolic extracts from biomass before and after acid hydrolysis (2 M HCl 2h) were used to determine the contents of 15 compounds by HPLC [4]. The extracts from A. graveolens callus, both before and after hydrolysis contained three compounds: p-hydroxybenzoic acid (p-HBA), salicylic acid (SA) and vanillic acid (VA). The total content of these compounds before and after hydrolysis on the tested medium variants amounted to 44.22 and 64.91 mg/100 g. (v. I) and 43.55 and 53.51 mg/100 g. (v. II), respectively, with salicylic acid being the main compound (max. 47.77 mg/100 g). S. chinensis extracts contained four compounds: gallic acid (GA), 3,4-phenoxyacetic acid (PHAA), syringic acid (SyrA) and VA. Additionally, p-HBA and rosmarinic acid (RA) were determined in extracts after hydrolysis. The total content of compounds before and after hydrolysis was equal to 18.76 and 39.69 mg/100 g (v. I) and 21.98 and 58.67 mg/100 g (v. II), respectively. PHAA and p-HBA were the main compounds. The studies demonstrate the effect of growth regulators especially on the accumulation of bound phenolic acids. The tested cultures can be proposed as a potential source of some phenolic acids.

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References: [1] Szopa A., Ekiert H. (2014) Indian J. Biotechnol.- in press; [2] Szopa A., Ekiert H. (2012) Appl. Biochem. Biotechnol. 166:1941 – 1948; [3] Murashige T., Skoog F. (1962) Physiol. Plant. 15:473 – 496]; [4] Tian S., Nakamura K. et al. (2005)J. Chromatogr. 1063:121 – 128.