ANTHRAQUINONES FROM OPHIORRHIZA-PUMILA TISSUE AND CELL-CULTURES

We have succeeded in initiating and establishing systems of tissue and cell cultures of Ophiorrhiza pumila. Examination of the constituents of the methanol extract of the cultured calli revealed the presence of 11 anthraquinones including two new ones whose structures have been r igorously proved using advanced spectroscopic methods. These findings demonstrated a remarkable difference in the constituents between the w ild plants and the callus tissue or cultured cells; the former is devo id of anthraquinones and contains a variety of camptothecin-related al kaloids whereas the latter contains a significant amount of anthraquin ones and shows no indication of the presence of alkaloids after severa l sub-culturings or final establishment of well growing cell suspensio ns. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.