Phenolic Antioxidant-Linked Bioactive Enrichment in Black Beans (Phaseolus Vulgaris L.) To Screen for Health Benefits and Enhancement of Salinity Resilience

Abstract

Dietary consumption of black bean has diverse human health benefits which can be targeted as part of dietary strategies for chronic disease management. A gap in knowledge currently exists regarding how to advance the efficient production of black bean under abiotic stress conditions with the potential to simultaneously enrich human health-relevant bioactives in harvested beans. Therefore, the objective was to evaluate the effects of seed and foliar elicitation treatments on metabolic regulation and health-relevant bioactive markers in dark-germinated sprouts and field-grown black beans using in vitro assays. Further, a study was designed to evaluate the combined effects of salinity stress, seed elicitation, and genotypes on regulation of salinity stress response. Significant improvement in total soluble phenolic content, and total antioxidant activity following seed and foliar elicitation treatments were found. Further seed elicitation resulted in improvement in antioxidant enzyme responses and associated higher salinity stress tolerance.