Abstract

INFLUENCE OF SOME PRECURSORS SUPPLEMENT ON GROWTH AND PRODCUTION OF ALPHATOCOPHEROL AND PIGMENTS IN CALLUS AND CELL SUSPENSION CULTURES OF CARTHAMUS TINCTORIUS L.

Dr. Smita Chavan*1and Prof. Tukaram Nikam

Abstract

The present study examined the effects of precursors (pyruvic acid,ferulic acid and cinnamic acid) on growth and alphatocopherol andpigment (yellow and red) prodcutions in Carthamus tinctorius callusand cell suspension cultures. The callus and cell suspension growthand alphatocopherol and pigment contents improved significantly onMurashige and Skoog (MS) medium (solid and liquid) containing 50.0μM α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and 2.5 μM 6-Benzylaminopurine (BAP) at 28 days of incubation period.Incorporation of 50 μM pyruvic acid significantly enhanced theproduction of alphatocopherol (17.8-fold) and yellow pigment (2.0-fold). Similarly, supplementation of 70 μM pyruvic acid enhanced 13.4 fold red pigment incallus culture. Among precursors, cinnamic acid (10 μM), significantly improved productionof yellow (4.6 fold) and red pigment (3.4 fold) in cell suspension culture. However,precursors feeding suppress the biomass of cell culture and production of alphatocopherol incell suspension culture. The present study reports improved productions of alphatocopheroland the pigments as a stress response of safflower callus and cell suspension cultures exposedto these precursors.

Keywords: Carthamus tinctorius, callus and cell suspension culture, cinnamic acid, pyruvic acid, ferulic acid