Tetraploidy induction increases galegine content in Galega officinalis L.

Abstract

Galega officinalis L. is an herbaceous plant of the Leguminosae family. In traditional medicine, the aerial parts of the plant have been used to treat diabetes, malignant fevers, and parasitic infections. Manipulation of ploidy level is one of the effective methods to produce plant variants with higher secondary metabolites. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to double the ploidy level of G. officinalis for increasing the galegine content. For this purpose, the seeds of G. officinalis were treated with 0%, 0.025%, 0.05%, 0.1%, and 0.2% of colchicine for three different periods of time (9, 24 and 48 h). Chromosome counting and flow cytometric analysis confirmed chromosome duplication in the treated plants. The 0.1% colchicine for 24 h was the best treatment for the induction of tetraploid plants (with induction efficiency of 6.67%). Comparison of the morphological characteristics showed that shoot length, number of stems, internode length, and stomata density were decreased in the tetraploid plants, while stomata size was increased as compared with diploids, significantly. In addition, the contents of total phenols, total flavonoids, and galegine were significantly greater in tetraploid plants than in diploids.