3rd Edition Of Plant Science and Molecular Biology World Conference 2026

Abstract

Although the use of phytohormones for crop improvement has great potential, little is known about the molecular effects of phytohormones in crops. This work investigated the effect of the exogenous application of plant growth regulators (PGRs), Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), and cytokinin-like 6-benzyl amino purine (BAP) on plant biomass and the phytochemical and biological parameters of Mentha rotundifolia L aerial parts and roots. The results showed that applying IAA and BAP significantly influenced the accumulation of phenolic compounds in the plant organs. Treatment with PGRs also induced remarkable increases in individual phenolic compounds, with the greatest increases observed for salvianolic and rosmarinic acids in the aerial parts treated with 20 mg/mL or 10 mg/mL of BAP. Salvianolic acid also showed the most significant increase in the roots of plants treated at 10 mg/mL (from 18.232 to 41.317 ug/g of extract). Furthermore, we observed enhanced antioxidant and inhibitory enzyme effects in the treated plants. Our findings suggest that exogenous hormones could improve the synthesis of phenolic compounds and, as a result, the bioactivity of medicinal or food plants.

Keywords: Mentha rotundifolia, IAA, BAP, Exogeneous hormones, Phenolic compounds, antioxidant effect