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Colchicine – an Overview for Plant Biotechnologists

  • Chapter
Bioactive Molecules and Medicinal Plants

Abstract

Secondary metabolites contribute to plant fitness by interacting with the ecosystems, and thus play a major role in the survival of the plant in its environment. Besides the importance for the plant itself, several secondary metabolites are commercially available as fine chemicals, such as drugs, dyes, flavors, fragrances, and insecticides. Due to their extensive biological activities, plant secondary metabolites have been used for centuries in traditional medicine. Alkaloids are an important group of secondary metabolites, of which colchicine is a useful agent in the treatment of acute attacks of gout. Apart from inhibiting the assembly of microtubules, the major biological effects of colchicine include leukocyte diapedesis, lysosomal degranulation, and inhibition of proliferation of fibroblasts as well as collagen transport to the extracellular space. In this way it relieves the pain associated with acute gout, decreases interleukin-l production in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis, and is used in the prevention or treatment of amyloidosis, scleroderma, and chronic cutaneous leukocytoclastic vasculitis. Colchicine prevents recurrences of acute pericarditis in adults and children. Colchicine is sold under different brand/trade names in different countries as a medicine for gout. The increased demand for colchicine has stimulated great interest in known plant sources of colchicine, new sources, and the route by which the alkaloid could be synthesized. Colchicine and related compounds have been found in several genera such as Colchicum, Merendera, Androcymbium, Gloriosa, and Littonia. Plant secondary products are vulnerable to fluctuations in value, depending on the effects of climate, pests, and diseases on the producing crops, or political changes in the producing countries. This has raised interest in developing biotechnological processes for the industrial production of such fine chemicals. However, very few reports are available on biotechnological approaches toward the biological production of such an important alkaloid. The evolving commercial importance of colchicine in recent years is sure to pave ways to extensive study by plant biotechnologists leading to exciting opportunities to engineer colchicine metabolism in plants.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre of Advanced Study in Cell and Chromosome Research, Department of Botany, University of Calcutta, 35 Ballygunge Circular Road, 700019, Calcutta, India

    Seemanti Ghosh & Sumita Jha

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  1. Seemanti Ghosh
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  2. Sumita Jha
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  1. Laboratory of Biomolecular Technology, Department of Botany, M.L. Sukhadia University, 313001, Udaipur, India

    K.G. Ramawat

  2. Groupe d‘Etude des Substances Végétales à Activité Biologique Laboratoire de Sciences Végétales, Mycologie et Biotechnologie,, UFR Pharmacie Universite Victor Segalen, 146 Rue Leo-Saignat, 33076, Bordeaux cedex, France

    J.M. Merillon

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Ghosh, S., Jha, S. (2008). Colchicine – an Overview for Plant Biotechnologists. In: Ramawat, K., Merillon, J. (eds) Bioactive Molecules and Medicinal Plants. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74603-4_11

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