Screening of several important compounds production in fennel (<i>Foeniculum vulgare</i> Mill.) populations

The perennial fennel plant is one of the most important and widely used medicinal plants of the Apiaceae family, which is mainly cultivated for the purpose of using the essential oil obtained from it in various pharmaceutical, food, cosmetic and health industries.

To investigate callogenesis and secondary metabolites production from calli, 13 populations of Iranian fennel as well as two populations from Germany and two populations from Turkey were evaluated by GC-MS.

Five types of explants (leaf, hypocotyl, epicotyl, cotyledon, and root segments) were cultured in MS medium supplemented with combination of 2,4-D + Kinetin (1:1), and also NAA + BA (0.5:1).

Among five explants used in this study, only hypocotyl explant had appropriate response to the callogenesis. According to the GC-MS analysis, the highest trans-anethole content (67.23 %) was produced in the callus of Turkish population (TUR1) under NAA + BA treatment (1:1). Callus extracts of other Turkish population (TUR2) contained considerable amounts of limonene (67.70 %) under 2,4-D + Kinetin treatment (0.5:1).

Callus induction with different plant regulators can have a significant contribution to the production of secondary metabolites, so callus that produce more secondary metabolites can be cultured in suspension or cell culture bioreactor systems. Based on the results of this research, Turkish fennel populations had the capacity to produce significant amounts of main secondary metabolites.