Enhanced bacoside production in shoot cultures of Bacopa monnieri under the influence of abiotic elicitors

Abstract

The effect of different abiotic elicitors [jasmonic acid, copper sulphate (CuSO₄) and salicyclic acid] at varying concentrations on the stimulation of biomass and bacoside production in in vitro Bacopa monnieri shoot culture was studied. A systematic study conducted over a period of 35 days indicated that the maximum bacoside production (6.74 mg g^− 1 dry weight (DW)) was obtained after a lag of 7 days and thereafter, the content decreased gradually to again increase at 28 days (5.91 mg g^− 1 DW). Therefore, elicitation experiments were carried out over a period of 3, 6 and 9 days. The shoot cultures treated with 45 mg L^− 1 of CuSO₄ exhibited the highest bacoside content of 8.73 mg g^− 1 DW (∼1.42-fold higher) than in control cultures (6.14 mg g^− 1 DW). This study indicates the effectiveness of abiotic elicitation on bacoside production in in vitro shoot cultures of this medicinally important herb known for its memory-enhancing properties.

Keywords::

• Brahmi
• elicitation
• HPLC
• shoot biomass
• secondary metabolite production

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Director, Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (CSIR), Jammu for providing the necessary facilities for the chemical analysis of the samples. Financial assistance received from the UGC, GOI under Project No. F. 7-324/2011(BSR) dated: 04/09/2013 for BSR Fellowship to MS is acknowledged.