Abstract
Streptocarpus x hybridus is a very popular houseplant with colourful flowers arousing thus the interest of plant breeders. Its potential value is even higher since different chemical compounds could be identified and used for food and pharmaceutical industries. Therefore, the objectives of this study were: to determine genetic relationships between twelve F1 Streptocarpus hybrids and their genitors; to determine the total phenolic and flavonoid content; to evaluate the antioxidant activity of the analysed individuals. Although 12 out of the 24 RAPD primers detected polymorphism among the individuals, the UPGMA dendrogram did not show a very clear grouping pattern for flower colour. In contrast, the phytochemical dendrogram shed more light on the dissimilarities among Streptocarpus flowers in terms of their polyphenolic content. The total phenolic and flavonoid content of the flower extracts determined by the Folin-Ciocalteau and aluminium chloride colorimetric methods ranged from 680.02 to 2360.57 mg of GAE/100 g FW and from 12.52 to 78.36 mg QE/100 g FW. The radical scavenging activity against ABTS ranged from 27.17 to 130.35 µM Trolox/g FW. Due to its ornamental value, H12 was screened by HPLC-PDA-ESI-MS to identify and quantify the chemical compounds involved in flower colour. Among the six compounds that were identified and quantified (i.e. cyanidin-3-O-galactoside, cyanidin-3-O-xyloside, cyanidin-3-O-glucoside, cyanidin-3-O-arabinoside, peonidin-3-O-glucoside and apigenin-6-C-glucoside), isovitexin reached the highest concentration 4183 µg rutin/100 g FW. These preliminary results, showing high total polyphenolic content and ABTS antioxidant activity, suggest that Streptocarpus flowers could be a valuable source of antioxidants.
Highlights
Streptocarpus x hybridus V., commonly known as cape primrose, is belonging to the Gesneriaceae family, being a perennial species, which is extensively cultivated worldwide as ornamental potted plant due to their beautiful flowers (Chaudhury et al, 2010).In the last decades, hybridizations were employed to obtain modern commercial hybrids with new flower colours and shapes, in order to increase their attractiveness on the flower market (Dibley, 2018)
random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) genetic relationships between genitors and F1 hybrids In order to estimate the genetic relationships between genitors and F1 hybrids, cluster analysis was performed based on RAPD data
Regarding RAPD molecular analysis, our results showed that the OPD20 primer identified a higher level of polymorphism (93.7%) compared to that reported for hybrids of Rosa sinensis (63.3%), by Prasad (2014), but lower than in Grevillea hybrids, where the polymorphism generated by OPD20 primer was 100 % (Pharmawati and Macfarlane, 2013)
Summary
Streptocarpus x hybridus V., commonly known as cape primrose, is belonging to the Gesneriaceae family, being a perennial species, which is extensively cultivated worldwide as ornamental potted plant due to their beautiful flowers (Chaudhury et al, 2010).In the last decades, hybridizations were employed to obtain modern commercial hybrids with new flower colours and shapes, in order to increase their attractiveness on the flower market (Dibley, 2018). The ornamental value of Streptocarpus hybrids has been usually assessed using different morphological descriptors for flowers, such as flower size, shape and colour (Dibley, 2008), which were the main traits chosen by plant breeders in artificial selections. Previous reports show that among the PCR-based molecular markers, RAPD has proven to be a reliable, low-cost technique for hybrid identification and genetic relationship assessment in new varieties of plants (Kobayashi et al, 1996a; Yulita and Mansur, 2012; Pharmawati and Macfarlane, 2013; de Oliveira Belo et al, 2018)
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