COMPARATIVE STUDY OF IN VITRO, EX VITRO AND IN VIVO PROPAGATED Salvia hispanica (CHIA) PLANTS: MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY

A tissue culture technique for micropropagation of chia (Salvia hispanica L.) was established. High percentage of seed germination (100%) was recorded on Murashige and Shoog medium enriched with 0.4 mg l gibberellic acid and 10 mg l ascorbic acid after one week of culture. The maximum number of shoots per explant (2.7) gave MS medium with 2 mg l 6-benzylaminopurine after five weeks of culture. The best plant rooting was achieved on half-strength MS medium with 0.1 mg l indole-3-butyric acid after four weeks of culture. The multiple plants were successfully ex vitro adapted with 95% survival. After six months under field conditions, important morphometric traits of ex vitro and in vivo derived plants were evaluated. Some morphological characteristics as plant height, leaf size, number of branches and leaves per plant were influenced by the propagation way. Differences between extracts of in vitro, ex vitro and in vivo developed plants in regard to free radical scavenging activity, flavonoid and lipid composition were not established. This is the first comparative study of micropropagated and in vivo seed derived chia plants. The study presents also for the first time data for antioxidant potential and lipid components of leaves of S. hispanica.