Heuchera Creme Brulee and Mahogany Medicinal Value under Water Stress and Oligosaccharide (COS) Treatment

Hosam O Elansary; Amal M E Abdel-Hamid; Eman A Mahmoud; Fahed A Al-Mana; Diaa O El-Ansary; Tarek K Zin El-Abedin

doi:10.1155/2019/4242359

Heuchera Creme Brulee and Mahogany Medicinal Value under Water Stress and Oligosaccharide (COS) Treatment

Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2019 Feb 17:2019:4242359. doi: 10.1155/2019/4242359. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Hosam O Elansary^{1

2

3}, Amal M E Abdel-Hamid⁴, Eman A Mahmoud⁵, Fahed A Al-Mana¹, Diaa O El-Ansary⁶, Tarek K Zin El-Abedin⁷

Affiliations

¹ Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
² Floriculture, Ornamental Horticulture and Garden Design Department, Faculty of Agriculture (El-Shatby), Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
³ Department of Geography, Environmental Management and Energy Studies, University of Johannesburg, APK Campus, 2006, South Africa.
⁴ Department of Biological and Geological Sciences, Faculty of Education, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
⁵ Department of Food Industries, Damietta University, Damietta, Egypt.
⁶ Precision Agriculture Laboratory, Department of Pomology, Faculty of Agriculture (El-Shatby), Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
⁷ Department of Agricultural Engineering, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Food borne pathogens cause serious human illnesses and diseases and their control using natural bioactive compounds becomes essential for the progress of agricultural and food industries. Developing novel tools to enhance the medicinal values of traditional horticultural medicinal crops is one of the promising methods for achieving food borne pathogens control. In this study, oligosaccharide water solutions were applied to Heuchera Creme Brulee and Mahogany subjected to a normal irrigation interval (2 days) or to prolonged irrigation intervals (6 days) for 6 weeks. Plant morphological, physiological, and metabolic markers associated with the bioactivity of leaf extracts against selected microbes. Oligosaccharide-treated plants showed significant increases in all morphological parameters during normal and prolonged irrigation intervals as compared to those of the controls. Morphological improvement associated with a significant increase in chlorophyll, carbohydrates, proline, K, Ca, phenols, and free and total ascorbate and antioxidants. Superoxide dismutase, catalase, and ascorbate peroxidase activities were higher, while H₂O₂ accumulated to a lower extent in oligosaccharide-treated plants. These morphological and metabolic changes associated with increased antibacterial and antifungal activities of leaf extracts and their activities were comparable to antibiotics and antifungal agents (minimum inhibitory concentrations values were 0.5 -0.20 mg^-1mL for bacteria and 0.08 -0.20 mg^-1mL for fungi in Mahogany). The application of oligosaccharide and/or water stress might be of great value for producing natural bioactive compounds for food borne pathogens control.