The effects of chitosan and salicylic acid on elicitation of secondary metabolites and antioxidant activity of safflower under in vitro salinity stress

• Published in: Plant cell, tissue and organ culture Vol. 137; no. 3; pp. 575 - 585
• Main Authors: Golkar, Pooran, Taghizadeh, Marzieh, Yousefian, Zeinab
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-06-2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Antioxidants; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Callus; Carthamus tinctorius; Chitosan; Flavonoids; Flavonols; Growth rate; Herbal medicine; Life Sciences; Medicinal plants; Metabolites; Original Article; Phenols; Plant Genetics and Genomics; Plant Pathology; Plant Physiology; Plant Sciences; Salicylic acid; Salinity; Salinity effects; Secondary metabolites; Short message service; Sodium chloride; Total phenolic content; Salicylic acid; Callus; Chitosan; Antioxidant activity
• ISSN: 0167-6857; 1573-5044
• DOI: 10.1007/s11240-019-01592-9

This study investigated the effects of different concentrations of two elicitors, namely chitosan (CHT) (25 and 50 mg L
−1
) and salicylic acid (SA) (50 and 100 mg L
−1
) on the production of secondary metabolites (SMs) and antioxidant activity of safflower callus under salinity stress. The content of total phenolics, total flavonoids, total flavonols, anthocyanin and antioxidant activity with 1,1-diphenyl-2 picrylhydrazyl assay (DPPH), significantly increased under salinity stress including 1.5% (w/v) sodium chloride. Under salinity stress, the highest content of total phenolics and total flavonoids were observed under elicitation by 50 (mg L
−1
) of SA and 25 (mg L
−1
) of CHT, but the highest callus growth rate (0.048 mm day
−1
), highest content of total flavonols (4.2 mg RE g
−1
FW) and the highest DPPH activity (61.48% of inhibition) were observed under elicitation by 50 (mg L
−1
) of SA under salinity stress. This indicated partial superiority elicitation of SA over CHT for callus growth and SMs production of safflower under salinity stress. This new elicitation opens new avenues for the selection and exploitation of the best elicitors and their dosages for the enhancement of commercially important SMs in safflower as an important medicinal plant at cellular level.
Key message
Effects of chitosan and salicylic acid on elicitation of SMs of safflower under in vitro salinity stress.