Establishment of adventitious root cultures from leaf explants of Tripterygium wilfordii (thunder god vine) for the production of celastrol

摘要

Adventitious root cultures of medicinal plants are considered as a source of raw material for pharmaceutical industries. Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. f. is a traditional medicinal plant used for treating various inflammations. Celastrol is the major bioactive compound in the roots of T. wilfordii and it possesses activities against arthritis, lupus, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and obesity. Direct adventitious roots were initiated from leaf explants of T. wilfordii in 1/2 salt strength Murashige and Skoog medium (MS) solid media supplemented with 0.25 mg/L indole-3-butyric acid and 0.25 mg/L 1-naphthylacetic acid and then used to establish root suspension cultures. Optimization experiments showed that MS liquid media with 2 mg/L 1-naphthylacetic acid was optimum for celastrol production. Comparison of celastrol content in suspension cells, natural roots and adventitious roots showed that the adventitious roots have great potential for celastrol production. The elicitation effects of different concentrations of methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and salicylic acid (SA) on root growth and celastrol production were investigated. 100 mu M MeJA significantly increased celastrol content in adventitious roots to 6321.27 mu g/g dry weight. The results reveal that elicitation is a good strategy for enhancing the celastrol content in adventitious root cultures. The study showed that adventitious root culture of T. wilfordii is a viable alternative method for celastrol production.