Effects of exogenous calcium on physiological characteristics and medicinal quality of Platycodon grandiflorus seedlings under drought stress
[Objective]Drought stress seriously affects the yield and quality of medicinal plants.This study aims to reveal the physiological mechanism of exogenous calcium in alleviating drought-induced damage in Platycodon grandifloras,which can provide a basis for using exogenous calcium to improve drought re-sistance and medicinal quality of P.grandiflorus in arid and semi-arid area.[Methods]With P.grandi-florus seedlings as materials,a pot experiment was conducted to explore the effects of exogenous calcium on the growth,photosynthetic gas exchange parameters,antioxidant enzyme activity,and medicinal quali-ty of P.grandiflorus seedlings under drought stress by foliar spraying of 10 mmol/L CaCl2.[Results](1)Exogenous calcium significantly increased root length and dry and fresh biomass of P.grandiflorus under drought stress.It significantly increased the stomatal aperture,chlorophyll a content,total chloro-phyll content,carotenoid content,net photosynthetic rate,stomatal conductance,and transpiration rate by 30.28%,57.67%,44.44%,100.33%,89.53%,60.00%,and 83.11%,respectively,in P.grandi-florus leaves under drought stress.(2)Exogenous calcium effectively reduced the content of malondialde-hyde and hydrogen peroxide in P.grandiflorus leaves under drought stress,which was significantly re-duced by 13.82%and 18.66%,respectively,compared to drought stress.Exogenous calcium increased the superoxide dismutase,superoxide dismutase,and catalase activities in P.grandiflorus leaves by 25.43%,7.90%,and 33.92%,respectively,and also increased the soluble protein content in roots com-pared with drought stress.(3)Exogenous calcium significantly increased the levels of latycodin-D,poly-saccharides,total flavonoids,and free amino acids in P.grandiflorus roots by 35.34%,34.87%,4.19%,and 6.52%,respectively,under normal conditions.Under drought stress,the levels were signifi-cantly increased by 10.94%,7.53%,6.07%,and 5.78%,respectively.(4)N,P,K,Ca,Cu,and Mn contents in the aboveground and underground parts of P.grandiflorus were significantly reduced under drought stress,while they were increased to varying degrees under exogenous calcium treatment.[Conclusion]Spraying 10 mmol/L CaCl2 could enhance the antioxidant system activity and osmotic regula-tion ability in P.grandiflorus leaves in arid environment,increase the content of photosynthetic pig-ments and photosynthetic performance,synergistically promote the accumulation of secondary metabolites and mineral elements,improve the quality of medicinal parts,and alleviate the damage of P.grandiflo-rus seedlings under drought stress.
Platycodon grandiflorusdrought stressexogenous calciumphotosynthesissecondary me-tabolitesantioxidant systems