Abstract
Lighting spectrum is one of the key factors that determine biomass production and secondary-metabolism accumulation in medicinal plants under artificial cultivation conditions. Ficus hirta and Alpinia oxyphylla seedlings were cultured with blue (10% red, 10% green, 70% blue), green (20% red, 10% green, 30% blue), and red-enriched (30% red, 10% green, 20% blue) lights in a wide bandwidth of 400-700 nm. F. hirta seedlings had lower diameter, fine root length, leaf area, biomass, shoot nutrient (N) and phosphorus concentrations in the blue-light spectrum compared to the red- and green-light spectra. In contrast, A. oxyphylla seedlings showed significantly higher concentrations of foliar flavonoids and saponins in red-light spectrum with rare responses in N, chlorophyll, soluble sugars, and starch concentrations. F. hirta is easily and negatively impacted by blue-light spectrum but A. oxyphylla is suitably used to produce flavonoid and saponins in red-light spectrum across a wide bandwidth.
Highlights
Medicinal plants are cultivated and developed as a primary source of health care for thousands of years due to their pharmaceutical and therapeutic applications (World Health Organization, 2013)
We found that F. hirta seedlings showed highly diverse leaf area; one seedling died out of every four adjacent ones from the shade created by the large leaves of its neighbour
Responses of seedling growth and morphology to spectra Plant species and lighting spectra had an interactive effect on shoot height (F2,12=8.70; P=0.0046) and root-collar diameter (RCD) (F2,12=3.97; P=0.0476)
Summary
Medicinal plants are cultivated and developed as a primary source of health care for thousands of years due to their pharmaceutical and therapeutic applications (World Health Organization, 2013). According to the World Health Organization (WHO) report on traditional medicine strategy, about 70% of the world population relies on traditional medicines and 80% of that are from developing countries (World Health Organization, 2013). The demand for medicinal plant production is increasing with the development of traditional and complementary medicine, but the plant material supply cannot meet this demand solely through traditional cultivation methods. Received in revised form: 22 Apr 2021. From Volume 49, Issue 1, 2021, Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca journal uses article numbers in place of the traditional method of continuous pagination through the volume. The journal will continue to appear quarterly, as before, with four annual numbers
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