Chemical potential of Aphelandra sp cell cultures

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.