Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and phosphorus in spilanthol and phenolic compound yield in jambu plants

Abstract

Jambu has spilanthol and phenolic compounds that are responsible for several medicinal properties. Besides improving nutrient absorption, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can change secondary metabolites’ yield. Thus, the aim of the current study was to evaluate AMF inoculation and P influence on shoot dry biomass yield, macronutrient content (N, P, K, Ca and Mg), total phenol contents and spilanthol percentage in jambu plants. The experiment followed a randomized block design at 3x4 factorial arrangement, with two AMF (Rhizophagus clarus and Claroideoglomus etunicatum) and without AMF, at four P doses (0, 30, 60 and 90 mg/kg of soil), with four replicates. Plants inoculated with R. clarus and C. etunicatum, grown without phosphate fertilization, presented increase by 23 and 12 times, respectively, in comparison to plants without AMF. The relative spilanthol area in plants inoculated with R. clarus, without phosphate fertilization, reached 2.4%. Shoot dry biomass yield of jambu plants and the P, K, Ca and Mg contents were higher when plants were inoculated with R. clarus at the lowest P doses. The AMF also increased the contents of total phenols in plants fertilized with 60 mg kg-1. This P dose increased spilanthol concentration in jambu plants inoculated with C. etunicatum.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi enhance active ingredients of medicinal plants: a quantitative analysis

“…Medicinal active ingredients with single AMF inoculation had the higher effect size compared to that with multi-AMF inoculation. Differences in the species and combinations of AMF were thought to be an impact factor on the medicinal active ingredient in previous studies (Zeng et al, 2013b;Lima et al, 2017;Vieira et al, 2021). Similar to our result that Rhizophagus had the best effect on increasing the concentration of medicinal active ingredients.…”

“…Currently, a large number of studies on AMF and medicinal plants have been conducted to explore the effects of mycorrhizal symbiosis on medicinal active ingredients (Zeng et al, 2013b;Ostadi et al, 2020;Duc et al, 2021;Zhao et al, 2022). Most studies found that AMF inoculation increased medicinal active ingredient contents in plants (Srivastava et al, 2016;Chen et al, 2017;Xie et al, 2018a), and a few researches reported AMF had negative or no effects on medicinal active ingredients (Vieira et al, 2021). The effects of AMF inoculation on medicinal active ingredients differed from organs (aboveground and belowground organs) and medicinal components (Zubek et al, 2012;Lima et al, 2017;Xie et al, 2018b).…”