Published in Scientific Papers. Series B, Horticulture, Vol. LXVIV, Issue 1
Written by Elena Monica MITOI, Alexandra Gabriela CIOCAN, Florentina ALDEA, Irina HOLOBIUC
The importance of antioxidant components for disease prevention and health quality improvement has attracted much research attention over the last decades. Aromatic herbs have been recognized as important sources of antioxidants, Melissa officinalis L. being one of the species with many therapeutic actions. Plant extracts represent mixtures of numerous compounds and their biological actions are often attributed to polyphenol components, such as flavonoids and phenolic acids, which possess antioxidant activities. The aim of our research was to obtain and characterize a highly metabolite-producing callus line of lemon balm, with antioxidant activity. Our callus’ performances were represented by a very high antioxidant capacity (18.74 mM Trolox equivalents/g DW), a high content of total polyphenols (2.57 mg gallic acid equivalents/g DW) and an especially rich content of flavonoids (19.21 mg rutin equivalents/g DW). This lemon balm callus line was compared to plant tissues grown in ex vitro conditions and proved to have clearly superior productive qualities. Also, our results showed values 4 to 18 times higher than those reported in other studies which investigated different types of lemon balm extracts.
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