Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Production of lignans in callus culture of Podophyllum hexandrum

R . Ahmad¹, V K Sharma² , A K Rai³, R D⁴, B G Shivananda⁵

¹Vivek College of Technical Education, Bijnor (Utter Pradesh India ); ²Vivek College of Technical Education, Bijnor (Utter Pradesh India ); ³Vivek College of Technical Education, Bijnor (Utter Pradesh India ); ⁴Al-Ameen College of Pharmacy, Bangalore (Karnataka India; ⁵Al-Ameen College of Pharmacy, Bangalore (Karnataka India.

For correspondence:- V Sharma Email: sharma_dibru@yahoo.co.in Tel:+91-01342-252200

Published: 25 December 2007

Citation: Ahmad R., Sharma VK, Rai AK, D R, Shivananda BG. Production of lignans in callus culture of Podophyllum hexandrum. Trop J Pharm Res 2007; 6(4):803-808 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v6i4.2

© 2007 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: Podophyllum hexandrum Royle, a source of highly valued podophyllotoxin has been subjected to heavy collection from the wild. The ever-increasing demand of podophyllum is mainly due to two semi synthetic derivatives of podophyllotoxin that is etoposide and teniposide, which are used in the treatment of various types of cancer. The anti cancer lignan derivative podophyllotoxin in Podophyllum hexandrum is biosynthesized at very low quantities in intact plant, so the biotechnological production of podophyllotoxin has been considered essential.

Method: The aseptically germinated embryos of Podophyllum hexandrum were developed on solid nutrient agar slab. For the growth of callus culture, Murashigae and Skoog media (MS media)) with various concentrations of BAP, NAA and GA₃ adjusted to pH 5.8 was used. Podophyllotoxin content in the alcoholic extract of calli and plant root was analysed by HPLC and HPTLC and was also compared with cultivated Podophllum hexandrum root extracts.

Result: A fully defined MS medium supplemented with Naphthalene acetic acid and 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) were effective for both initiation and sustained growth of callus tissue. The relative proportion of callus was markedly influenced by presence of plant growth regulators. The amount of Podophyllotoxin obtained from callus was 0.78 and 0.79 percent as characterized by HPLC and HPTLC respectively.

Conclusion: The study revealed that callus culture may be a fruitful tool for the production of Podophyllotoxin resin, an anticancer entity.

Keywords: Podophyllum hexandrum, Tissue culture, Podophyllotoxin, HPTLC, HPLC.