Biotechnological Approaches for the Production of some Promising Plant‐Based Chemotherapeutics

Co-culture of arbuscular mycorrhiza-like fungi (Piriformospora indica and Sebacina vermifera) with plant cells of Linum album for enhanced production of podophyllotoxins: a first report

“…There is an urgent need to search for alternate ways to produce these lignans by cell cultures due to threatened status of its natural source and economically unfeasible chemical synthesis. Cell cultures of Linum album are known to produce these lignans with highest productivity (Baldi et al 2007). So L. album cell cultures capable of producing anticancer lignans namely PT and 6-methoxypodophyllotoxin (6-MPT) were used to establish co-cultures with living cells of P. indica and S. vermifera in suspension culture.…”

Improved podophyllotoxin production by transformed cultures of Linum album

“…Tissue cultures of Podophyllum species turned out to be quite recalcitrant; therefore, in recent years tissue cultures of Iranian flax, Linum album, is becoming an attractive alternative. These cell cultures were reported to produce lignans with high volumetric productivities [5].…”

“…This is due to differences in their biosynthetic capabilities in producing secondary metabolites [6]. Selection of high yielding cell line is one of the most important steps in developing a commercial process for production of certain secondary metabolites by plant cell cultures [5]. There are no reports on systematic studies for the development of fast growing and high podophyllotoxin-producing cell lines of L. album.…”

Effect of Piriformospora indica on Enhanced Biosynthesis of Anticancer Drug, Podophyllotoxin, in Plant Cell Cultures of Linum album

“…Linum album is a perennial herbaceous plant which produces PT and its derivatives. The main lignan in L. album is PT (Smollny et al 1998), and the suspension cultures of this plant are known to produce these lignans with highest productivity (Baldi et al 2007). For the enhanced secondary metabolite production, transformed cell and organ cultures have been reported to be an alternative to suspension cultures (Giri et al 2000;Baldi et al 2008a).…”