Six different callus lines and three different suspension culture lines wer
e established from plants of two Aphelandra species (Acanthaceae). All esta
blished lines were analyzed for secondary metabolite accumulation. A discre
pancy between secondary metabolites accumulated in the plants and in the ce
ll cultures could be observed. All established Aphelandra sp. cell cultures
produced verbascoside (acteoside) as the major extractable metabolite. Tim
e course experiments were carried out to investigate the relationship betwe
en cell growth and verbascoside production. In the present study it was sho
wn that verbascoside accumulation was growth dependent and positively relat
ed to the presence of 2,4-D in the medium. The conditions in which verbasco
side represents ca. 18% of cell culture weight have been defined. Free poly
amines were detected in the cell culture lines cultivated in MS liquid medi
um (cysteine 10 mg l(-1), thiamine 1 mg l(-1), 2,4-D 1 mg l(-1), kinetin 0.
2 mg l(-1) and sucrose 30 g l(-1)). Putrescine and spermidine accumulated w
ithin 8 days to a maximum of 8.4 mu mol g(-1) of dry wt and 2.6 mu mol g(-1
) of dry wt respectively and thereafter their concentration decreased rapid
ly. There was no evidence for the presence of spermine or any other type of
free or conjugated polyamines in the tested cell culture lines.