title: Manipulating the antioxidant capacity of halophytes to increase their cultural and economic value through saline cultivation.
abstract: Halophytes, salt-tolerant plants, are a source of valuable secondary metabolites with potential economic value. The steady-state pools of many stress-related metabolites are already enhanced in halophytes when compared with glycophytes, but growth under conditions away from the optimum can induce stress and consequently result in changes to secondary metabolites such as antioxidants. However, direct evidence for increasing the concentration of valuable secondary metabolites as a consequence of altering the salinity of the growing environment still remains equivocal. To address this, we analysed a range of metabolites with antioxidant capacity (including total phenols, flavonoids, ascorbate, reduced/oxidized glutathione and reactive oxygen species scavenging enzymes) in seedlings and plants from different families (Amaranthaceae, Brassicaceae, Plantaginaceae and Rhizophoraceae) and habitats grown under different salt concentrations. We show that it is possible to manipulate the antioxidant capacity of plants and seedlings by altering the saline growing environment, the length of time under saline cultivation and the developmental stage. Among the species studied, the halophytes Tripolium pannonicum, Plantago coronopus, Lepidium latifolium and Salicornia europaea demonstrated the most potential as functional foods or nutraceuticals.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Botany, Leibniz University Hannover, D-30419 Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Boestfleisch
authors.affiliation: Institute of Botany, Leibniz University Hannover, D-30419 Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Niko B
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Wagenseil
authors.affiliation: Institute of Botany, Leibniz University Hannover, D-30419 Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Anne K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Buhmann
authors.affiliation: Seed Conservation Department, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Wakehurst Place, Ardingly, West Sussex RH17 6TN, UK.
authors.forename: Charlotte E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Seal
authors.affiliation: Seed Conservation Department, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Wakehurst Place, Ardingly, West Sussex RH17 6TN, UK.
authors.forename: Ellie Merrett
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Wade
authors.affiliation: Department of Agriculture, Mediterranea University, 89126 Reggio Calabria, Italy.
authors.forename: Adele
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Muscolo
authors.affiliation: Institute of Botany, Leibniz University Hannover, D-30419 Hannover, Germany jutta.papenbrock@botanik.uni-hannover.de.
authors.forename: Jutta
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Papenbrock
keywords: Halophytes; nutraceuticals; secondary metabolites; stress tolerance; yield