Phenolic/flavonoid content and antioxidant activity during somatic embryogenesis of highbush and lowbush blueberry plants

Phenolic compounds represent an important group of secondary metabolites predominantly distributed in plant kingdom. Blueberries contain high levels of health-promoting phytochemicals
and exhibit high antioxidant activities. Available evidence shows that free radicals cause oxidative damage to lipids, proteins and nucleic acids, which leads to a number of health disorders, such as cancer, heart, vascular and neurodegenerative diseases. Antioxidants have the capacity to scavenge free radicals; therefore they can act as an important factor
to prevent these diseases. In the past few years, investigation of metabolic pathways of these phytochemicals from various plants has become a major area of health-related research. The
purpose of this study was to investigate phytochemical components such as the total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC), and antioxidant activity of the highbush
blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) cultivar ‘Polaris’ and the lowbush blueberry (V. angustifolium Ait.) wild clone designated as ‘NL1’ from plants regenerated via somatic embryogenesis and conventionally grown counterparts. The chemical analysis was performed on the extracts of 6-8 week-old leaves. Antioxidant activity was screened using the DPPH method. The highest level of antioxidant activity was detected in the conventionally cutting (CC) donor plants as compared to the somatic embryogenesis regenerated plants. TPC and TFC were present comparatively in higher amounts in tissue culture plants than in CC donor plants. These results clearly point out that in blueberries the somatic embryogenesis process has a visible effect on TPC, TFC and antioxidant activities.