Planta Med 2008; 74 - PG59
DOI: 10.1055/s-0028-1084811

Effects of methyl jasmonate on alkaloid production in callus culture of Stemona curtisii Hook.f

J Palee 1, S Dheeranupattana 1, A Jatisatienr 1, C Jatisatienr 1, SG Pyne 2, AT Ung 2, T Sastraruji 1
  • 1Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, 50200, Thailand
  • 2Department of Chemistry, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, 2522, Australia

Stemona curtisii Hook.f. is aThai medicinal and insecticidal herbaceous plant but nevertheless the alkaloid contents in the whole plant are low. Elicitation (such as methyl jasmonate, MJ) is one of the strategies employed to increase accumulation of alkaloids in tissue cultures, i.e. scopoletin and scopolin in tobacco cell cultures [1]. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of MJ on Stemona alkaloid production especially stemocurtisine in the friable callus. To induce callus, shoot of Stemona plantlets were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) agar medium supplemented with 0–1.0mg/l of 2,4–dichlorophenoxylacetic acid (2,4–D) or thidiazuron (TDZ) or benzyladenine purine (BAP) and incubated at 25±2°C for 8 weeks. It was found that the MS agar medium containing 1.0mg/l 2,4–D induced the highest friable callus production at 64.28%. While, the MS medium containing 1.0mg/l BAP or 0.1–0.7mg/l TDZ induced the highest compact callus production at 87.50%. To determine the effect of MJ, friable callus was transfered into MS liquid medium supplemented with 1.0mg/l 2,4–D and 100µM MJ and incubated at 25±2°C for 1, 3, 5 and 7 days. Analysis of alkaloid production in friable callus by High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography revealed that stemocurtisine was not present in callus and culture medium. This result indicated that MJ did not stimulate the stemocurtisine accumulation in the callus and culture medium but stimulated the production and secretion of other secondary metabolites into the medium. However, MJ did not inhibit callus growth as seen from the highest biomass accumulation of 15.16 gFW/l whereas the control without MJ, the highest biomass accumulation was 12.76 gFW/l. Moreover, an unknown alkaloid at Rf 0.05–0.06 was detected in the callus similar to that found in natural leaves and roots.

Acknowledgements: We are grateful to the Ministry of National Research and Environment for supporting this project.

References: 1. Sharan, M., et al. (1998). Plant Sci. 132: 13–19.