PROFILING OF PHENOLIC AND FLAVONOID COMPOUNDS OF IN VITRO BORAGO OFFICINALIS L. PLANTLETS: A PROMISING PLANT IN THERAPEUTIC NUTRITION

Abstract

Borago officinalis , sometimes known as borage, a medicinal and ornamental plant that grows throughout the Mediterranean basin, Western Asia, and parts of North Africa, South America, and Continental Europe. As a result of the importance of this plant, the aim of this study is to propagate it using tissue culture technique and identify the most bioactive compounds (phenolic and flavonoid). Shoot tip explants were grown on MS-medium without growth regulators or with 0.5 and 1.0 mg/l of the following growth regulators: kinnetin (kin), 6-(,-dimethylallylamino) purine (2iP), and thidiazuron (TDZ). After 30 days, shoot length, number of auxiliary buds, and observed rooting were recorded. The produced plantlets were subjected to extraction with 80% methanol, followed by HPLC profiling of phenolic and flavonoid compounds. The result revealed that, basal MS-medium without cytokinins resulted in higher quality shoots with root development than the other used media. The formation of small flowers was also observed on the plantlets that formed on the basal MS-medium after three subcultures. Rosmarinic acid showed the most frequent and prevalent compound, recorded 166.64 µg/g DW, followed by apigenin (55.63 µg/g DW), and caffeic (27.25 µg/g DW). In vitro Borago officinalis can be utilized as a source of phenolics and flavonoids, especially rosmarinic acid.