Planta Med 2002; 68(12): 1113-1117
DOI: 10.1055/s-2002-36340
Original Paper
Physiology
© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

Biotransformation of 2α,5α,10β,14β-Tetraacetoxy-4(20),11-taxadiene by Cell Suspension Cultures of Catharanthus roseus

Jungui Dai1 , Yajun Cui1 , Weihua Zhu2 , Hongzhu Guo1 , Min Ye1 , Qiu Hu2 , Dayong Zhang2 , Junhua Zheng1 , Dean Guo1
  • 1The State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100083, P.R.China
  • 2Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Science & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100050, P.R.China
Further Information

Publication History

Received: March 24, 2002

Accepted: July 13, 2002

Publication Date:
20 December 2002 (online)

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Abstract

Catharanthus roseus cell suspension cultures were employed for the biotransformation of 2α,5α,10β,14β-tetraacetoxy-4(20),11-taxadiene (1), and four metabolites were obtained. Based on their physical and chemical data, the structures of the four metabolites were respectively elucidated as 10β-hydroxy-2α,5α,14β-triacetoxy-4(20),11-taxadiene (2), 5α-hydroxy-2α,10β, 14β-triacetoxy-4(20),11-taxadiene (3), 6α,10β-dihydroxy-2α,5α,14β-triacetoxy-4(20),11-taxadiene (4), and 6α,9α,10β-trihydroxy-2α,5α,14β-triacetoxy-4(20),11-taxadiene (5), among which 3 and 5 were characterized as new taxoids. The effects of the stages of substrate addition on the biotransformation were also investigated. The results revealed that the biotransformation rate for 1 reached 85.3 % and the yield of 2 70 % when 1 was administered during the mid-linear phase (9 - 12th day) of the cell growth cycle. On the other hand, the yield for 4 reached the highest level of 11.8 % when 1 was added in the early linear phase (6th day).