Accumulation of Phenylpropanoids in Tartary Buckwheat (<i>Fagopyrum tataricum</i>) under Salt Stress

Abstract

Salinity stress affects plants by reducing the water potential and causing ion imbalance or disturbances in ion homeostasis and toxicity. Salinity stress frequently causes both osmotic and ionic stress in plants, resulting in the increase or decrease of certain secondary metabolites in plants. In this study, the effect of NaCl treatment on the nutritional quality of tartary buckwheat plants was studied by conducting an HPLC analysis of phenylpropanoid and anthocyanin content. It was observed that there was no significant change of color in tartary buckwheat during salt treatment. The accumulation of most phenylpropanoid compounds increased slightly in response to the NaCl concentration. The total phenylpropanoid content in tartary buckwheat was the highest at 100 mM NaCl treatment. Seven-day-old wheat plantlets treated with 100 mM NaCl for 2, 4, 6, and 8 days showed the highest accumulation of total phenylpropanoids at day 8 after treatment, while the content of most phenylpropanoids was higher than that in the control during this period. Although the development of tartary buckwheat slightly decreased with NaCl treatment and the accumulation of anthocyanin compounds did not change in plants with a diffident NaCl concentration and time treatment, the results suggest that the salinity treatment of tartary buckwheat causes antioxidant activity improvement by inducing an accumulation of flavonoid and phenolic compounds. However, since the anthocyanin content did not increase, the antioxidant effect of the treatment is not expected to be significant.

Keywords

• tartary buckwheat
• phenylpropanoid
• anthocyanin
• salinity stress
• nacl