Investigation of the effect of salt stress on callus formation in hypericum perforatum and analysis of phenolic compounds in obtained calli by UPLC-MS/MS

Hyperium perforatum L., which spreads in different geographies of the World from the equator to the Scandinavian countries and is known by different names such as St. John's Wort, tetterwort, and tipton weed has been used in traditional medicine throughout the World for centuries. It has been used in traditional medicine for nervous system diseases, menstrual cramps, sciatica, joint inflammation, and pain caused by stomach disorders. Moreover, it is used in the treatment of several skin diseases. In addition, the H. perforatum plant is a rich source of phytochemicals. These compounds are thought to be essential oils containing phloroglucinol type, hyperforin, adhyperforin, naphtodianthrones hypericin, pseudohypericin, flavonoid, hyperoside, rution, quercitrin, quercetin, biapigenin, phenylpropane caffeic acid and cholorogenic acid. Hypericum species, especially H. perforatum, have been intensively studied pharmacologically and chemically for the last 30 year, and scientific studies on the medicinal properties and importance of these plants are increasing every day. However, the soil salinity caused by the drought due to the increasing temperature change is becoming a more serious problem for H. perforatum day by day, solely, there is no current study in this area. Essentially, salinity from Sodium Chloride (NaCl) is one of the most important environmental factors affecting plant growth and productivity. Salinity has become an increasingly critical problem as our environment rapidly deteriorates due to less precipitation that cannot remove salt, heavy summers that cause soil moisture to evaporate faster and frequent and incorrect fertilizer application. In this study, it has been investigated how the impacts of salt stress affect callus development in H. perforatum plant. Primarily, the seeds of the plant collected from nature were cultured in plant tissue culture medium. Callus growth was stimulated in the nutrient medium induced by growth regulators of the leaves. Finally, the growth of calluses was observed in nutrient medium containing different concentrations of salt. Changes of phenolic compounds were investigated by UPLC-MS-MS analyzes that were compared in terms of weight and size after the growth and development of our plants were monitored under different nutrient medium. As a result of the study, decreases in plant growth and development were observed and these changes were found statistically significant.