In Vitro Propagation, Huperzine A Content and Antioxidant Activity of Three Genotypic Huperzia serrata

Huperzia serratais a traditional herb and endangered Chinese medicinal material, which has attracted much attention due to its production of Huperzine A (HupA). In vitro propagation ofH. serratais considered a new way to relieve the resource pressure ofH. serrata. In this study, three different genotypic wildH. serratawere used for in vitro propagation. Then, the antioxidant activity and the content of HupA in the regeneratedH. serratawere investigated. The results showed the survival rate of the explant was increased to 25.37% when using multiple sterilization processes. The best induction medium forH. serratawas the Schenk and Hildebrandt (SH) medium supplemented with 0.5 mg·L−1Naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and 0.1 mg·L−12,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), where the regeneration rate of the explant was to 57.04%. The best proliferation medium was the SH medium with NAA (1.0 mg·L−1), as the biomass of in vitro tissue increased 164.17 ± 0.41 times. High-performance liquid chromatography analysis showed that the in vitro culture of three genotypes could produce HupA and the content of HupA was 53.90–87.17 µg·g−1. The antioxidant experiment showed that the methanol extract of in vitroH. serratahad higher antioxidant activity than that of wildH. serrata. This study provides a reliable in vitroH. serrataculture protocol and laid an important foundation for the antioxidant capacity of the thallus and the content of HupA.Keywords:genotypes;Huperzia serrata;Huperzine A;micropropagation;sterilization;antioxidant