Anita Surendra Patil, Pooja Suryavanshi and Devanand Fulzele
Gamma irradiations are physically induced stresses that has been considered as the rapid and fast method to enhance the quality and quantity of plant characteristics. Phenolic compounds and flavonoids possess a wide range of biological activities such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-aging, anti-bacterial and anti-tumor functions and have high economical and pharmaceutical values. In current study In vitro callus cultures were exposed to gamma irradiation at different doses 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 Gy. After 25 days of gamma irradiation the gamma irradiated callus (M0T0) culture were further subcultured on 0.5 mg/L napthalein acetic acid (NAA) and benzyl amino purine (BAP) till M5T5 generation. The free radical scavenging activity of gamma irradiated methanolic callus extract was measured by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) method. The highest free radical scavenging activity was found in 15 Gy dose of M2T2 generation which is 7.1 ± 0.29 mg mL-1 as compared to control which is 6.71 ± 1.15 mg ml-1. Irradiation dose of 15 Gy showed highest amounts of flavonoid content 103.78 mg ml-1 in M2T2 generation. Gamma irradiation dose of 15 Gy showed high amounts of phenols that is 10.64 ± 1.08 mg/gm as compared to control which is 1.87 mg/g of dry callus.