Micropropagation of Lobelia chinensis Lour.: Influence of Medium Parameters on Plant Regeneration, Antioxidant Activity, and Secondary Metabolite Accumulation

Micropropagation of Lobelia chinensis Lour.: Influence of Medium Parameters on Plant Regeneration, Antioxidant Activity, and Secondary Metabolite Accumulation

Chinese lobelia (Lobelia chinensis Lour.) is an important medicinal plant that is used in traditional Chinese, Korean, and Japanese medicine. The goal of the current study was to develop an in vitro propagation technique for Lobelia chinensis. We have examined the effects of different media compositions on the regeneration of shoots from nodal cultures of Lobelia chinensis, including Murashige and Skoog (MS), Gamborg (B5), Schenk and Hildebrandt (SH), Woody plant (WPM), Chu (N6), and Nitsch and Nitsch (NLN) media. Similar to this, shoot regeneration was examined using MS medium of double (2.0), full (1.0), half (0.5), and quarter (0.25) strengths. The regeneration of shoots was also examined with additions of 0, 1, 3, 5, and 7% (w/v) sucrose to MS media. For axillary shoot regeneration, full-strength MS medium supplemented with 3% (w/v) sucrose was shown to be the most effective of all the evaluated factors. On this medium, nodal explants optimally regenerated 4.5 shoots per explant and subsequently shoots involved in rooting on the same medium. The regenerated plants possessed abundant phenolics, flavonoids, and DPPH, ABTS, and FRAP antioxidant activities. High performance liquid chromatographic examination (HPLC) of the regenerated plants revealed an accumulation of myricetin and catechin in higher amounts.