Production of biologically active phenolic acids in Aronia melanocarpa (Michx.) Elliott in vitro cultures cultivated on different variants of the Murashige and Skoog medium

Phenolic acids, both benzoic and cinnamic acid derivatives, are plant metabolites with high therapeutic and cosmetic values. Methanolic extracts from the biomass of shoot and callus cultures of Aronia melanocarpa growing on seven variants of the Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with different concentrations of plant growth regulators, BA and NAA, ranging from 0.1 to 3.0 mg l(-1), were examined for the production of free phenolic acids and cinnamic acid using the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. The extracts from the shoot and callus cultures were confirmed to contain five of the twelve compounds tested for: caffeic, p-coumaric, p-hydroxybenzoic, syringic and vanillic acids. The shoot extracts contained additionally salicylic acid. Both the total amounts and the amounts of individual compounds in either the shoot or callus extracts were dependent on the concentration of cytokinin and auxin in the MS medium variants. The total amounts in the shoot and callus cultures were in the range from 93.52 to 217.00 mg 100 g(-1) DW and from 47.11 to 83.83 mg 100 g(-1) DW, respectively. The amounts of individual compounds showed wide variation, from 1.31 to 91.86 mg 100 g(-1) DW in the shoot extracts, and from 2.58 to 40.16 mg 100 g(-1) DW in the callus extracts. Salicylic acid (max. 91.86 mg 100 g(-1) DW), p-coumaric acid (max. 62.39 mg 100 g(-1) DW) and p-hydroxybenzoic acid (max. 50.66 mg 100 g(-1) DW) dominated in the shoot extracts, while syringic acid (max. 40.16 mg 100 g(-1) DW) and p-hydroxybenzoic acid (max. 23.59 mg 100 g(-1) DW) were the main metabolites in the callus extracts. This is the first report on the quantitative analysis of benzoic and cinnamic acid derivatives in shoot and callus cultures of A. melanocarpa growing on MS-based media with different concentrations of selected plant growth regulators-BA and NAA. The obtained maximum amounts of some metabolites are of interest from a practical perspective.