Effect of methyl jasmonate on the production of furanocoumarins in callus cultures of Ruta graveolens L.

This project was designed to study the effect of different concentrations of the abiotic elicitor Methyl Jasmonate (MeJA), on the production of furanocoumarins, from callus cultures of Ruta graveolens L. The concentrations of MeJA0.0, 25, 50, 75 μM L⁻¹ were used. The callus cultures were induced on Murashige and Skoog medium enriched with 2.0 mg L⁻¹ 2,4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D) combined with 0.5 mg L⁻¹ Kinetin (Kin).The results obtained by using fast liquid column chromatography (FLCC), showed that addition of MeJA at the above concentrations to Murashige and Skoog growth medium significantly affect the production of furanocoumarins. The concentration of 75 μM L⁻¹ MeJA gave the highest concentrations of psoralen (2.881 mg g⁻¹) and bergapten (6.524 mg g⁻¹), compared with the control treatments (0.913 mg g⁻¹3.983 mg g⁻¹) and increase was 3.2, and 1.6-fold respectively. However, the highest xanthotoxin concentration of 0.610 mg g⁻¹was at 25 μM L⁻¹ MeJA compared with control treatment (0.244 mg g⁻¹).