Elicitation of antioxidant secondary metabolites with jasmonates and gibberellic acid in cell suspension cultures of Artemisia absinthium L.

Artemisia absinthium L. is a very important species with worldwide traditional medicinal uses. In this study, effects of different concentrations of two important elicitors, methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and jasmonic acid (JA), and a phytohormone gibberellic acid (GA) on growth kinetics, secondary metabolites accumulation and antioxidant activity in cell suspension cultures of Artemisia absinthium L. were investigated. The results showed inhibition in dry biomass accumulation and shorter log phases of cultures growth in response to most treatments, compared to control. Further, we observed enhanced accumulation of total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC) and highest radical scavenging activity (RSA) in suspension cultures treated with 1.0 mg/l of MeJA, JA and GA, each. The correlation studies between secondary metabolites and antioxidant activity showed TPC-dependent RSA in most cultures. MeJA and JA treated cultures showed no significant variation in the context of total flavonoid contents and 1.0 mg/l of both displayed significantly comparable maximum RSA profiles on day-24 of culture. GA-treated cultures showed minimum accumulation of TPC, but TFC and RSA were found to be significantly comparable to those in MeJA and JA treated cultures. The results showed elicitors-induced enhancement in phenolic and flavonoid accumulation and antioxidant activity in suspension cultures of Artemisia absinthium L.