Methyl jasmonate and salicylic acid enhance the production of epifriedelanol and friedelin in Cannabis sativa  L. hairy roots

Abstract

Friedelin and epifriedelanol are pentacyclic triterpenoids that preferentially accumulate in the roots of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) and are valued for their antidiabetic, hypolipidemic, antioxidant, liver protective, anti-ulcer, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anticancer, and antisenescence properties. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of media, carbon sources, and elicitation on the production of C. sativa hairy root biomass and these metabolites. The MS liquid medium promoted the highest fresh weight (9.45 ± 0.00 g/100 mL flask) biomass production in hairy root cultures after 28 days. The highest levels of epifriedelanol (3.79-fold) and friedelin (3.25-fold) were found at the end of the exponential phase. The presence of 3% sucrose provided the highest accumulation of epifriedelanol (0.930 ± 0.013 mg/g DW) and friedelin (0.574 ± 0.024 mg/g DW) in the roots. The effects of methyl jasmonate (MJ) and salicylic acid (SA) on the enhancement of friedelin and epifriedelanol in C. sativa hairy root cultures were investigated. Between the two elicitors, SA showed the highest production of epifriedelanol (up to 5.018 ± 0.35 mg/g DW) and friedelin up to 1.56 ± 0.34 mg/g DW in 28-day-old stationary phase hairy roots. These represented 5.22- and 2.88-fold increase over the control (0.96 ± 0.01 mg/g DW and 0.54 ± 0.03 mg/g DW) after 96 h of treatment, respectively. The maximum accumulations of epifriedelanol (3.59 ± 0.12 mg/g DW) and friedelin (1.31 ± 0.01 mg/g DW) were observed in the treatment with MJ (100 µM) after 24 h of exposure and were 3.73- and 2.44-fold higher than the control, respectively. These findings suggest that elicitation is an effective technique for enhancing the yields of these valuable bioactive pentacyclic triterpenoids in C. sativa hairy root cultures in a relatively short period of time.