Biotechnological approaches for the production of guggulsterones through organised and unorganised cultures of Commiphora wightii in shake flask and bioreactor

Commiphora wightii (Arnott.) Bhandari is an endangered, slow growing medicinal tree. The hypolipidemic and hypocholesterolemic activity is due to the presence of two closely related steroidal ketones, guggulsterones-E and guggulsterone-Z, which are effective antagonists of the bile-acid receptor, FXR [1]. The callus cultures were grown on MS medium containing 0.25mg/l 2,4,5-T and 0.1mg/l kinetin accumulated ˜15µg/g guggulsterones. The cells were analysed for the content using HPLC [2]. The significant increase in total guggulsterone accumulation, 59µg/g was recorded in the tissues grown on CM2 medium containing 40g/l maltose.

Somatic embryogenesis was achieved from immature zygotic embryos of C. wightii on MS medium and histological studies showed formation of resin canal in somatic embryos at torpedo stage. Cell suspension cultures of C. wightii, grown in modified MS medium containing 0.5mg/l 2,4-D and 0.25mg/l kinetin, produced ˜5µg guggulsterone/g dry wt. In a 2l stirred tank bioreactor, the biomass was 5.5g/l and total guggulsterone was 36µg/l. Increased guggulsterone accumulation up to 18µg/l was recoded in cells grown in the production medium with total 4% sucrose:glucose, precursors (phenylalanine, pyruvic acid, xylose, sodium acetate), and morphactin and 2iP. A yield of 10g/l biomass and ˜200µg/l guggulsterone was recorded in 3l flask and 2l stirred tank bioreactor as compared to 6.6g biomass and 67µg/l guggulsterone in 250ml flasks.

References: 1. Ramawat, KG., Mathur, M. et al. (2008) Bioactive molecules and medicinal plants, Springer, Heidelberg 101–121. 2. Tanwar, YS., Mathur, M., et al. (2007) Plant Growth Regul. 51:93–98.