Assessment of bacoside production, total phenol content and antioxidant potential of elicited and non-elicited shoot cultures of Bacopa monnieri (L.)

Abstract

Thirteen accessions of Bacopa monnieri (L.) Wettst. were assessed for in vitro propagation, total bacosides, total phenol content and antioxidant potential. Nodal explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with 0.4 mg/L benzyl aminopurine (BA) to identify best accession based on growth parameters. The selected accession (IC 554588) was elicited with 1 mg/L of jasmonic acid, salicylic acid or malt extract to assess its efficacy in enhancing secondary metabolites production in in vitro cultures. Elicitor-treated plants showed increased production of bacosides (2.7–3.9 fold), total phenol content (5–18 fold) and higher antioxidant potential (7.9 fold) in 4 weeks. According to statistical analysis, antioxidant potential is highly correlated to total phenol as R-sq (adj) is 90.1%. Data was subjected to correlation, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis to understand the relationship between different variables and identify major contributors of variability. Strong correlation between total bacoside, total phenol, and antioxidant activity indicate that elevated antioxidant potential was the result of overall increase in bacoside and phenol content, which can be enhanced by the application of elicitors. The study suggested that accessions IC 554588, IC 344312 and IC 554585 are elite and may be utilized for various pharmacopeias after further in vivo research and clinical trials.