Effects of salicylic acid and aspirin on growth of in vitro anoectochilus formosanus hayata

Abstract

If you have chosen Chinese tea in the supermarkets or taken hepatic medicines, high chances are that they contained Anoectochilus formosanus Hayata (A. formosanus), a valuable herbal plant with remarkable medicinal effects to treat hypertension, diabetes, heart diseases, nephritis, lung and liver diseases. In the present study, biomass and biochemical components including chlorophyll contents, antioxidant activities and polyphenols of in vitro A. formosanus under treatments of different concentrations of salicylic acid (commonly known as SA) and aspirin (commonly known as ASA) (0-3.0 mg/L and 0.2-1.0 mg/L) were qualified and examined. In relation to physiological aspects, different concentrations of SA were showed to have positive and negative effects on the growth and development of in vitro A. formosanus, meanwhile, different ASA concentrations were found to have no effect on growth and development of A. formosanus, except on relative chlorophyll contents in high ASA concentrations. In relation to biochemical component aspects, most of the treated samples (except ASA 0.4 mg/L concentration treatments) showed statistically the same total phenolic contents coupled with a decrease in the scavenging activities, compared with the control. To sum up, SA was found to significantly promote the growth and development in terms of biomass, particularly SA 2 mg/L, but not significantly enhance biochemical components. Low ASA concentrations, however, were shown not to significantly influence the biomass or total phenols either, except ASA 0.4 mg/L was shown to significantly enhance total phenolic contents. Meanwhile, high ASA concentrations were found to have no positive effects on the biomass or biochemical components. The findings were valuable under investigation into the effects of SA and ASA on the biomass, and production of biochemical components in the orchid, promising its applications in the enhancement of those components in vitro A. formosanus. It is suggested that SA 2 mg/L or ASA 0.4 mg/L will be using in the near future to enhance biomass or biochemical components of the plant, respectively depending on the purpose of in vitro culture. Besides, the in vitro A. formosanus with the newly developed protocol under treatments of SA or ASA could be chosen as sources of plants, which possess better yield and/or strength and resilience, to be cultured ex vitro, increasing survival rate in growing and propagation of the plants for higher production.