Duboisia genus

The genus Duboisia consists of three species, D. leichhardtii F. Muell, D. myoporoides R. Br. and D. hopwoodii F. Muell. The leaves of the former two species are a major source of the tropane alkaloids, scopolamine and hyoscyamine [1]. The alkaloid content in Duboisia can be affected by the environment, and a seasonal decline was noted in the scopolamine content between May and September in Australia [18]. Callus and root cultures of Duboisia have been studied with a view to developing a new method to obtain tropane alkaloids more efficiently and the results obtained supported the view that root organ culture is so far the best system for the production of tropane alkaloids [5]. Therefore suitable culture conditions for growth and alkaloid production must be established. 

Genus Duboisia (Family Solanaceae) comprises four species, Duboisia leichhardtii F. Muell, D. myoporoides R. Br., D. hapwoodii F. Muell and recently discovered D. arenitensis L. A. Craven, B. J. Lepschi L. A. R. Haegi, and the leaves of D. leichhardtii and D. myoporoides, as well as... 

Although the production of tropane alkaloids in tissue culture of solanaceous plants usually is low, hairy root cultures of Duboisia leichhardtii produced 1.1% (dry weight) of scopolamine (Ellis, 1988). Cultures of this genus have been studied widely because they synthesize both nicotine-... 

Figure 1.16. Alkaloids of the genera Nicotiana, Duboisia, and Hyoscyamus, family Solanaceae. At the top left is nicotine, and on the right is the tropane alkaloid type. Below there is a schematic chromatogram. The genus Duboisia includes species containing both alkaloids, and sometimes a difference exists between genotypes of a single species (Nowacki and Waller, 1973). Courtesy of the publishers of Flora, V. E. B. Gustav Fisher Verlag.

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