No abstract

Callus tissue was initiated from Morinda citrifolia L. and maintained on solid media, as well as in flask suspension cultures, for more than four years. Cells grown in the presence o f N A A showed a substantial production of anthraquinones while those grown with 2,4-D as the sole auxin source did, not'. Quality and concentrations of different growth regulators were investigated for their ability to maintain cell growth and to support secondary product formation. The effect o f nutritional factors such as carbohydrates, nitrogen, phosphate, vitamins etc. on growth and anthraquinone formation was studied. Growth patterns o f cells in suspension were determined and correlated with product synthesis. Under optimal conditions, yields of anthraquinones in cell suspension cultures exceeded those of differentiated root tissue by a factor of 10 on a dry weight basis. Yields of 2.5 grams of anthraquinones per litre of medium were achieved, corresponding t o an. anthraquinone content of at least 10% of the raw dry cell mass. Recent advances in plant suspension culture techniques suggest that aseptically grown cell cultures and cell aggregates of higher plants might be used for the corhmercial production of natural products. This subject and the problems involved with this method have been comprehensively reviewed (e.g. FURUYA, 1968; PUHAN and MARTIN, 1971; TEUSCHER, 1973). Worldwide increased shortage of raw material, independence of climatic factors and plant epidemics, as well as constant yield and quality of the material produced, would favour the exploration of aseptic methods for the production of metabolites. The basic problems which hinder product biosynthesis using plant cultures is the fact that plant cell cultures generally produce particular compounds elaborat

No abstract

No abstract

A total of 19 different species belonging to the genera Asperula, Galium, Rubia and Sherardia were taken into cell culture. All species, differentiated plants as well as tissue cultures, produced anthraquinones in differing yields. Cells were grown in a basal medium containing 7 differently substituted phenoxyacetic acids, as well as 1-naphthaleneacetic acid, all at 10(-5) M concentration. The effectors supporting highest pigment production in each culture were selected and, in the presence of the selected effector, the sucrose content of the medium was then varied from 1 to 14%. Anthraquinone formation was thus optimized for each individual species, but no general pattern, either of effector quality or of sucrose concentration, emerged. In 17 out of 19 cases secondary product formation in optimized cell cultures surpassed that of differentiated plants. The highest anthraquinone yield was observed with Galium verum (1.7 g/l) and the highest concentration achieved with Rubia fruticosa (20% of dry weight).