Abstract
A number of cell cultures of Peganum harmala were initiated to check for a correlation between the harman alkaloid content of seedlings and cell lines derived therefrom. Despite a poor correlation between callus or suspension culture lines and parent plants, the mean alkaloid contents of strains derived from seedlings with higher alkaloid yields were nevertheless higher than the mean contents of strains derived from low yield plants. Generally, alkaloid accumulation decreased with the numbers of transfers. By permanent visual selection for fluorescent areas of the calluses, however, a mean content of 0.1% harman alkaloids and 0.1% serotonin could be maintained, which was 10 times higher than in unselected callus cultures.
The effects of medium constituents on harman alkaloid and serotonin accumulation were measured for a low yielding, faster growing suspension culture strain and a slowly growing, but high yielding cell line. This led to the development of a production medium without 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and phosphate, and with Ca, Mg, and nitrate as sole macronutrients. When this production medium was used, the accumulation of harman alkaloids and serotonin was increased from 0.1 to 1% in the low yielding cell line and from 1 to 2% in the high yielding strain.
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