Planta Med 1998; 64(3): 270-272
DOI: 10.1055/s-2006-957424
Letters
Letter
© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

Improved Taxol Yield in Cell Suspension Culture of Taxus wallichiana (Himalayan Yew)

S. Jha1 , D. Sanyal1 , B. Ghosh1 , T. B. Jha2
  • 1Centre of Advanced Study, Department of Botany, University of Calcutta, Calcutta, India
  • 2Department of Botany, Darjeeling Government College, Darjeeling, W Bengal, India
Further Information

Publication History

1997

1997

Publication Date:
04 January 2007 (online)

Abstract

Cell culture of Taxus wallichiana Zucc (= T. baccata ssp wallichiana Zucc. Pilg.) (Himalayan yew) has been established and taxol-producing cell lines selected by cell line cloning. Cell line NC110 derived from needle leaf of a 40-year-old tree growing in Darjeeling Himalayas produced 0.018% taxol in B5 basal medium supplemented with 2,4-D (2 mg/l), kinetin (0.5 mg/l), and casein hydrolysate (0.5%). This cell line has been maintained for over 2 years. Significant enhancement in the level of taxol (0.05%) was obtained in this cell line by supplementation of the basal medium with 5 mg/l of IAA-phenylalanine instead of 2,4-D without adversely affecting cell growth. IAA-glycine also enhanced taxol level (0.03%) while IAA alone (1 -10 mg/l) was ineffective in inducing taxol accumulation. Using three different cell lines with different taxol-producing capacities, it has been demonstrated that 2,4-D and IAA-phenylalanine when present alone favour growth and taxol production but when combined enhance biomass to a maximum (six-fold in NC110) without enhancing taxol accumulation, suggesting that a two-stage culture may be beneficial for optimising taxol accumulation in cell culture of T. wallichiana.