High production of bioactive depsides in shoot and callus cultures of Aronia arbutifolia and Aronia x prunifolia

Methanolic extracts from calluses and shoots of Aronia arbutifolia and Aronia x prunifolia cultivated in vitro were quantitatively analysed for phenolic acids by DAD-HPLC. The cultures were grown on ten variants of Murashige-Skoog medium variants enriched with various concentrations of growth regulators (GRs), BA and NAA, in the concentration range 0.1-3.0 mg/L. The analysed extracts were confirmed to contain from four to six compounds (depsides-chlorogenic acid, neochlorogenic acid, and rosmarinic acid, and also protocatechuic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, and 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid). The total amounts of the metabolites varied considerably, depending on the amounts of the GRs in the tested medium variants, and increased in the callus and shoot extracts, respectively, up to 1.7 and 3.2 times (A. arbutifolia), and 2.2 and 2.7 times (A. x prunifolia). Maximum total amounts were confirmed in shoot extracts of both plants (approx. 200 and 600 mg/100 g DW, respectively). The main compounds in A. arbutifolia cultures were the depsides-chlorogenic acid, rosmarinic acid, and neochlorogenic acid (max. 91.94, 77.03, 32.57 mg/100 g DW, respectively). The same depsides dominated quantitatively in the cultures of A. x prunifolia (max. 131.82, 206.62 and 257.39 mg/100 g DW, respectively).