Impact of chemical stress on secondary metabolites of BACOPA MONNIERI (L.) WETTST

Abstract

The demand for cultivating medicinally important plants has a lot of scope and significance at present and in the near future. The present study has been carried out to check the impact of chemical stress on secondary metabolites in medicinally important plant Bacopa monnieri (L.) Wettst. As the initial step the plant was cultivated in optimum environment conditions. They were subjected to stress by applying chemicals such as urea and salt in separate pots in different doses. The urea and salt stress has induced several biochemical changes that lead to morphological changes. The morphological observations showed presence of yellow colour in leaves. But there were no any serious effects observed in plant life. After stress application plants were collected separately and it was shade dried, powdered and stored separately. Using the powdered sample and ethanol extract of the plant the total phenolic contents, flavonoids, terpenoids, alkaloids and saponins were evaluated and compared the control and plants subjected to stress. Higher the stress gives higher content of secondary metabolites except the few. The study proves that there is production of secondary metabolites during stress conditions in the plant Bacopa monnieri. The production is higher in such treated plants when compared to plants kept as control. This piece of research has paved a way for its improved commercial production. Further the researchers can also proceed with other research analysis based on compounds synthesized through application of different stresses to this plant.