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. 2023 Apr 17;12(8):1669.
doi: 10.3390/plants12081669.

Effect of Green Synthesized ZnO-NPs on Growth, Antioxidant System Response and Bioactive Compound Accumulation in Echinops macrochaetus, a Potential Medicinal Plant, and Assessment of Genome Size (2C DNA Content)

Salim Khan  1 , Fahad Al-Qurainy  1 , Abdulrahman Al-Hashimi  1 , Mohammad Nadeem  1 , Mohamed Tarroum  1 , Hassan O Shaikhaldein  1 , Abdalrhaman M Salih  1
Affiliations

Effect of Green Synthesized ZnO-NPs on Growth, Antioxidant System Response and Bioactive Compound Accumulation in Echinops macrochaetus, a Potential Medicinal Plant, and Assessment of Genome Size (2C DNA Content)

Salim Khan et al. Plants (Basel). .

Abstract

Echinops macrochaetus is a medicinal plant that can be used to cure various diseases. In the present study, plant-mediated zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) were synthesized using an aqueous leaf extract of the medicinal plant Heliotropium bacciferum and characterized using various techniques. E. macrochaetus was collected from the wild and identified using the internal transcribed spacer sequence of nrDNA (ITS-nrDNA), which showed the closeness to its related genus in a phylogenetic tree. The effect of synthesized biogenic ZnO-NPs was studied on E. macrochaetus in a growth chamber for growth, bioactive compound enhancement and antioxidant system response. The irrigation of plants at a low concentration of ZnO-NPs (T1 = 10 mg/L) induced more growth in terms of biomass, chlorophyll content (273.11 µg/g FW) and carotenoid content (135.61 µg/g FW) than the control and other treatments (T2-20 mg/L and T3-40 mg/L). However, the application of a high concentration of ZnO-NPs (20 and 40 mg/L) increased the level of antioxidant enzymes (SOD, APX and GR), total crude and soluble protein, proline and TBARS contents. The accumulations of the compounds quercetin-3-β-D-glucoside, luteolin 7-rutinoside and p-coumaric acid were greater in the leaf compared to the shoot and root. A minor variation was observed in genome size in treated plants as compared to the control group. Overall, this study revealed the stimulatory effect of phytomediated ZnO-NPs, which act as bio-stimulants/nano-fertilizers as revealed by more biomass and the higher production of phytochemical compounds in different parts of the E. macrochaetus.

Keywords: antioxidant system response; genome size; medicinal plants; nano-fertilizers; polyphenolic compounds.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Phylogenetic reconstruction of Echinops macrochaetus with other species of Echinops using Maximum Parsimony method.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Biosynthesis of ZnO-NPs using the aqueous leaf extract of Heliotropium bacciferum: (a) H. bacciferum in natural habitat; (b) aqueous leaf extract; (c) synthesized ZnO-NPs; (d) ZnO-NPs in pelleted form with secondary metabolites; (e) powder form of synthesized ZnO-NPs.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Characterization of synthesized phytomediated ZnO-NPs: (a) UV-visible spectrum; (b) Fourier transmission infrared (FTIR); (c) transmission electron microscopy (TEM); (d) zeta potential.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Effect of ZnO-NPs on morphological traits of E. macrochaetus. ZnO-NP treatments: control (0 mg/L); T1 (10 mg/L); T2 (20 mg/L) and T3 (40 mg/L).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Effect of ZnO-NPs on morphological traits of E. macrochaetus: (a) leaf number; (b) leaf length; (c) shoot length. Treatments including control (0 mg/L, ZnO-NPs); T1 (10 mg/L, ZnO-NPs); T2 (20 mg/L, ZnO-NPs) and T3 (40 mg/L, ZnO-NPs). Different letters represent the significant values according to Duncan test at level p < 0.05.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Effects of ZnO-NPs on fresh and dry weights of plant parts: (a) leaves; (b) roots; (c) shoots; (d) root to shoot ratio per plant (n = 3). Treatments including control (0 mg/L, ZnO-NPs); T1 (10 mg/L, ZnO-NPs); T2 (20 mg/L, ZnO-NPs) and T3 (40 mg/L, ZnO-NPs). Different letters represent the significant values according to the test of Duncan at level p < 0.05.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Effects of ZnO-NP on photosynthetic pigments: (a) total chlorophyll; (b) carotenoid content. Treatments including control (0 mg/L, ZnO-NPs); T1 (10 mg/L, ZnO-NPs); T2 (20 mg/L, ZnO-NPs) and T3 (40 mg/L, ZnO-NPs). Different letters designate a significant difference by Duncan’s multiple range tests at p < 0.05.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Effect of ZnO-NPs on antioxidant enzyme activities in E. macrochaetus: (a) superoxide dismutase (SOD); (b) ascorbate peroxidase (APX); (c) glutathione reductase (GR). Treatments including control (0 mg/L, ZnO-NPs); T1 (10 mg/L, ZnO-NPs); T2 (20 mg/L, ZnO-NPs) and T3 (40 mg/L, ZnO-NPs). Bars represented by different letters indicate significant values according to Duncan’s test (p < 0.05).
Figure 9
Figure 9
Effect of ZnO-NPs on accumulation of various biochemicals in the leaves of E. macrochaetus: (a) proline content; (b) TBARS content; (c) total protein content; (d) soluble protein content. Treatments including control (0 mg/L ZnO-NPs); T1 (10 mg/L, ZnO-NPs); T2 (20 mg/L, ZnO-NPs) and T3 (40 mg/L, ZnO-NPs). Bars represented by different letters indicate significant values according to Duncan’s test (p < 0.05).
Figure 10
Figure 10
Histogram generated from propidium-iodide-stained nuclei isolated from young leaf of E. macrochaetus: (a) control (0 mg/L ZnO-NPs); (b) treatment T1 (10 mg/L, ZnO-NPs); (c) T2 (20 mg/L, ZnO-NPs); (d) T3 (40 mg/L, ZnO-NPs).
Figure 11
Figure 11
HPLC chromatogram of standard compounds: (a) quercetin-3-β-D-glucoside (QBDG); (b) luteolin 7-rutinoside; (c) p-coumaric acid.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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