Planta Med 2008; 74 - PG93
DOI: 10.1055/s-0028-1084845

The production of catalpol using hairy root culture of Rehmannia glutinosa L

WC Lu 1, YH Wu 1, WN Lin 2, MS Lee 1, WT Chang 1
  • 1School of Chinese Medicine Resources, College of Pharmacy, China Medical University, 91, Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung 404, Taiwan
  • 2Graduate Institute of Chinese Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, China Medical University, 91, Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung 404, Taiwan

Agrobacterium-mediated hairy roots are unique in their genetic and biosynthetic stability. They have been widely applied in the production of valuable secondary metabolites and as alternative sources of new compounds. The root of Rehmannia glutinosa L. (Scrophulariaceae) is widely used in the traditional Chinese medicine to treat metabolic disorders. The constituents of R. glutinosa are iridoids and their glycosides, especial the major component, catalpol, with hypoglycemic pharmacologic activity [1]. The specific aim of this study was to establish the hairy root culture of R. glutinosa by transformation using A. rhizogenes LBA1334 carrying a GUS reporter gene [2] and subculture on different culture conditions to investigate the efficient production of catalpol from this transgenic roots for further medical applications.

Comparing with two previous study reports of R. glutinosa hairy root cultures [3, 4], the results demonstrated here show that the hairy root cultures of R. glutinosa maintained in the 1/2B5 medium with 3% sucrose are able to accumulate a higher level of catalpol. The exposure of light is beneficent for the accumulation of catalpol in hairy root cultures with 0.76%. The higher pH value in the medium also had a significant effect for catalpol accumulation. The production of catalpol in pH8.8 was 2 times comparing with the other pH value. Moreover, we have enhanced the production of catalpol through abiotic stresses, e.g. vanadyl sulfate (VOSO4) and Amberlite XAD-7, in the transgenic hairy roots. The most efficient method was treated with XAD-7at 11th day of culture time; the production of catalpol was able to reach to 2.21%. These findings will be very helpful for the establishment of catalpol production model system using the hairy roots culture of R. glutinosa.

Acknowledgements: Grateful acknowledgement is made to Dr. Clara L. Díaz, Institute of Biology, Section of Molecular Cell Biology, Leiden University, for her kindness in Agrobacterium strain providing. This study is supported by grant from National Sciences Council (NSC 95–2320-B-039–013-MY2), Taiwan.

References: 1. Zhang, R.X. et al. (2004)J. Ethnopharmacol. 90:39–43. 2. Díaz, C.L. et al. (1989) Nature 338:579–581. 3. Hwang, S.J. (2006) Korean J. Medinical Crop Sci. 14:31–35. 4. Zhou, Y.Q. et. al. (2007) Fen Zi Xi Bao Sheng Wu Xue Bao. 40: 223–231