Natural Product-cum-Nano Lab, Division of Biochemistry, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu, Main Campus Chatha, Jammu-180009, UT of Jammu and Kashmir, India
The present study evaluated the effect of different elicitors (salicylic acid, methyl salicylate and neem leaf extract) along with precursor feeding on phenolic content and antioxidant activity of broccoli and knolkhol sprouts. The results of the study revealed that elicitation increased the PAL and TAL enzyme activity which resulted in the enhancement of antioxidant and phenolic content of broccoli and knolkhol sprouts. Salicylic acid (200μM) plus L-phenylalanine treatment was found to be optimum as it showed the highest increase of phenolics, flavonoids, condensed tannin content and antioxidant activity for both broccoli and knolkhol sprouts. The optimum treatment also enhanced the phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), tyrosine ammonia-lyase (TAL), and peroxidase (POD) activity in broccoli sprouts by the 1.45-fold, 1.61-fold, and 1.51-fold, respectively and in knolkhol sprouts, the increase was 2.25-fold, 0.68-fold and 1.44-fold, respectively. Based on the findings of the present research, elicitation supported by precursor feeding appeared to be a easy and cheap method for increasing the bioactive components and antioxidant potential of broccoli and knolkhol sprouts.
Elicitor, Precursor, Phenolics, Antioxidant activity
