Harnessing carbon nanotubes in Moringa oleifera micropropagation for enhanced morphological traits, phytochemicals, and phytohormones production

Abstract

Moringa oleifera, a highly valued medicinal plant, rich in bioactive compounds, has low regeneration efficiency that limits its large-scale production. This study evaluated the potential of CNTs to enhance in-vitro micropropagation and secondary metabolites accumulation in M. oleifera. CNTs were incorporated in different concentrations: 20, 50, 80, 100, 120, and 140 mg/L in Murashige and Skoog (MS) basal medium to assess their impact on seed germination, callus induction, and regeneration. Among all the treatments, 100 mg/L CNTs produced the most significant improvements, yielding the highest fresh (3.08 ± 0.005 g) and dry (2.1 ± 0.001 g) biomass of callus. Furthermore, the callus-derived regenerated plants exhibited the highest shoot number (21.0 ± 0.41), shoot length (12.33 ± 1 cm), number of leaves (46.66 ± 0.57 leaves/plant), number of roots (14 ± 0.21), and longest root length (9.8 ± 0.61 cm) on 100 mg/L CNTs. Additionally, CNTs-derived calli extracts were examined for biochemical content and phytohormone levels. Among all the used concentrations, 100 mg/L was the best for maximum content production. These findings show that CNTs have affected the levels of important plant hormones and metabolites. This study represents the first attempt to use CNTs for the micropropagation of Moringa in vitro, and it was found that CNTs can promote the biosynthesis of essential plant metabolites, thereby enhancing plant growth.