Swiss National Scientific Foundation
Searching for perspective endemic and rare plant species of Kyrgyzstan with the object of root large scale cultivation for alternative crude drug data base creation (for medical and food industries)
Project goal
Determination the most pharmacologically valuable plants and production transgenic root cultures of endemic, rare and economically valuable plant species of Kyrgyzstan for their possible consumption as a source of bioactive compounds and creation on their base ecologically pure crude drug of new type.
Project results
Genetically transformed roots (hairy roots) and callus tissue of skullcap (Scutellaria andrachnoides Vved.) were for the first time introduced in the in vitro culture. S. andrachnoidesis the endemic plant of the Kyrgyzstan. These cultures were characterized byactive and stable growth in the hormone-free liquid Gamborg nutrient medium. The growth rate of undifferentiated callus tissue was higher than that of hairy roots, which were the source of this callus. The composition of secondary metabolites in hairy roots, callus tissue, and also the roots of seedlings and adult S. andrachnoidesplants was analyzed. It was found that S. andrachnoideshairy roots and callus culture retained the ability for the synthesis of flavones typical for the roots of intact plants. Substantial quantitative differences in secondary metabolites were observed between the roots of juvenile and adult plants. In the seedling roots,which like hairy roots have no secondary thickening, wogonoside, a wogonin glucuronide, predominated among flavones. In the roots of adult plants growing due to the secondary thickening, balcalin, a baicalein glucuronide, was a dominating flavon. It is proposed to use the large scale in vitro cultivation of roots and especially the rapidly growing callus tissue of S. andrachnoides with a profitable content of only one group of flavones for the development of the biotechnological method for producing wogonin and creating on its basis a new drug – a valuable anticancer agent of plant origin with selective cytotoxic activity.
A patent was issues based on the results of the project:
