The Open Horticulture Journal

2010, 3 : 31-35
Published online 2010 October 21. DOI: 10.2174/1874840601003010031
Publisher ID: TOHORTJ-3-31

Effect of Different Strength of Medium on Organogenesis, Phenolic Accumulation and Antioxidant Activity of Spearmint ( l.)

Dani Fadel , Spiridon Kintzios , Athanasios S. Economou , Georgia Moschopoulou and Helen-Isis A. Constantinidou
Laboratory of Plant Physiology, Faculty of Agricultural Biotechnology, Agricultural University of Athens, 118 55 Athens, Greece.

ABSTRACT

We investigated the effect of inorganic salt concentration on the in vitro organogenesis of spearmint (Mentha spicata L.) by using Murashige and Skoog culture medium of different strength (full, half- and quarter strength). The highest number of shoots and roots induced per explant (3.5 and 10, respectively), as well as the maximum average shoot length (16 cm) was observed on half strength medium. The maximum leaf number (35 per explant) and average root length (7 cm) were associated with regeneration on full medium. The highest average phenolic content was observed on shoot extracts (7.20 mg/g f.w.) and root extracts (5.93 mg/g f.w.) cultured onto quarter and half strength medium, respectively. The strength of the culture medium was inversely correlated with the antioxidant activity of plant extracts. Therefore, for spearmint organogenesis, half strength MS medium offers a compromise between optimum growth in vitro and antioxidant phenolic accumulation.

Keywords:

Antioxidant activity, medium strength, , Murashige and Skoog basal medium, phenolics.