The potential ofCynara cardunculusL. for phytoremediation of heavy metal in contaminated soils

Abiotic Stresses Elicitation Potentiates the Productiveness of Cardoon Calli as Bio-Factories for Specialized Metabolites Production

“…In this work, we used calli from leaves of C. cardunculus ‘Spagnolo’ with the aim of evaluating the efficacy of two strategies of abiotic elicitation in stimulating the accumulation of bioactive metabolites, while having a minimal perturbation effect on the growth of cardoon cell cultures. Albeit cardoon is a tolerant species able to also grow in limiting conditions [ 16 , 45 , 46 , 47 ], in both whole plant and in the derived calli a common response to stress is represented by the decrease in growth [ 48 , 49 , 50 ] and this is a typical drawback in the use of synthetic biotic elicitors and to a lesser extent for abiotic elicitors [ 51 ]. In this work, alteration in the fresh weight of ‘Spagnolo’ calli was monitored during 6 °C chilling stress treatment for 7 or 14 days or NaCl (50, 100, or 150 mM) salt stress treatment for 14 or 28 days, observing a strong reduction of fresh weight in a dose and time-dependent manner in salt stressed calli.…”

Evaluation of cadmium and arsenic effects on wild and cultivated cardoon genotypes selected for metal phytoremediation and bioenergy purposes

“…The experimental design sought to vary the concentrations to reflect high metal stress conditions but also low stress conditions where growth might be stimulated through hormesis. The actual concentrations were chosen based on preliminary trials (Leonardi et al 2016a(Leonardi et al , 2016bPappalardo et al 2016), which indicated differences in plant response over these concentrations and by comparison with values used in the literature (Sun et al 2008;Papazoglou 2011;Llugany et al 2012). The arsenic solutions, created from sodium dibasic arsenate heptahydrate (Na 2 HAsO 4 7H 2 O), and those of cadmium, made from cadmium nitrate tetrahydrate (Cd (NO 3 ) 2 4H 2 O), were named as As0 (control), As500 and As2000, and Cd0 (control), Cd500 and Cd2000, respectively, with the numbers representing concentration in micromolar.…”

“…The domestic cardoon has been cultivated for many years as a traditional food source in some parts of southern Europe, particularly in Italy, France and Spain. In addition, its high production of biomass and grain (Raccuia and Melilli 2007;Angelini et al 2009;Raccuia et al 2012) can be used for different purposes, including feed, bioenergy, green chemistry, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and phytoremediation of heavy metals (Raccuia and Melilli 2004;Genovese et al 2016aGenovese et al , 2016bLeonardi et al 2016aLeonardi et al , 2016bRaccuia et al 2016;Toscano et al 2016;Gominho et al 2018). The wild cardoon is a robust thistle with a characteristic rosette of large spiny leaves and branched flowering stems that accumulate biomass mainly in roots (Raccuia and Melilli 2004).…”

“…All these characteristics, its good adaptability to the Mediterranean climate, to stressful environmental conditions (salt, heat and drought stress) (Mauromicale and Licandro 2002;Raccuia et al 2004b;Benlloch-González et al 2005;Argento et al 2016;Docimo et al 2020;Pappalardo et al 2020), its good tolerance to stress induced by contaminants both during germination and growth phases (Llugany et al 2012;Sánchez-Pardo et al 2015;Leonardi et al 2016aLeonardi et al , 2016bPappalardo et al 2016Pappalardo et al , 2020Arena et al 2017;Capozzi et al 2020) and low input management, suggested its potential use for phytoremediation. From these studies, the potential of cardoon to accumulate heavy metals and metalloids from polluted soils is very clear.…”