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Drought effects on polyphenol composition and antioxidant activities in aerial parts of Salvia officinalis L.

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Abstract

Salvia officinalis L. is a medicinal plant containing several compounds with important pharmacological activity. In this study, we investigated the effects of water deficit (moderate and severe water deficits) on the contents of total and individual polyphenols of the aerial parts. Also, we studied the effect of drought on the antioxidant activity of methanolic extracts. Our results showed that water deficiency, as estimated by the decrease in water potential, resulted in a reduction of the biomass, plant height and total chlorophyll contents. In general, drought increased the level of total and individual polyphenols and this increase was more pronounced under moderate water deficit. These findings suggest that S. Officinalis is a sensitive species and that a severe water deficit could result in a decline in the activity of enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of phenolic compounds. On the other hand, our results showed an enhancement of reducing power and the radical scavenging activity as assessed using the DPPH assay with increasing stress severity. Finally, the evaluation of the chelating capacity of the extracts was found to be altered significantly under severe treatment by 39.71%. Based on these results, it seems that drought tolerance of S. officinalis is related to the capacity of the plant to modulate its phenolics in order to face to oxidative stress caused by water limiting conditions.

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Abbreviations

C:

Control

MWD:

Moderate water deficit

SWD:

Severe water deficit

FC:

Field capacity

BHT:

Butylhydroxytoluene

HCl:

Chloridric acid

IC50:

The half maximal inhibitory concentration

EC50:

The half maximal effective concentration

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

DW:

Dry weight

FW:

Fresh weight

DPPH:

2,2′-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl

GAE:

Gallic acid equivalent

K3Fe:

(CN)6 Potassium ferricyanide

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire des Substances Bioactives Centre de Biotechnologie à la Technopole de Borj-Cédria (CBBC), BP 901, Hammam-Lif, Tunisia

    Iness Bettaieb, Ibtissem Hamrouni-Sellami, Soumaya Bourgou, Ferid Limam & Brahim Marzouk

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  1. Iness Bettaieb
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  2. Ibtissem Hamrouni-Sellami
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  3. Soumaya Bourgou
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  4. Ferid Limam
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  5. Brahim Marzouk
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Correspondence to Iness Bettaieb.

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Communicated by R. Aroca.

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Bettaieb, I., Hamrouni-Sellami, I., Bourgou, S. et al. Drought effects on polyphenol composition and antioxidant activities in aerial parts of Salvia officinalis L.. Acta Physiol Plant 33, 1103–1111 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-010-0638-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-010-0638-z

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