Formation of Alkaloids in Cell-Suspension Cultures

5 Formation of Alkaloids in Cell-Suspension Cultures.- This subject has been an active area of research in the last few years, and it is potentially a way to obtain economically useful natural products in a controlled environment, rather than by extracting whole plants, which are often difficult to cultivate in hospitable regions of our planet. Several books on this topic have appeared. The species Catharanthus roaeus has attracted much attention since it is a source of the clinically useful antitumor agents vinblastine and vincristine. Extensive work with this species has been carried out by Zenk ,Kutney ,Scott ,and their 

One particular cell line of C. roseus. CSo. 943) was selected for detailed chemical investigation. Yields as high as 0.44% of alkaloids (based on the dry weight of cells) v ere obtained from this particular cell line. In addition to the known alkaloids of the Corynanthe, Strychnos, and Aspidosperma type, four new alkaloids (58-61), illustrated below,were isolated. None of the alkaloids 

Another notable example of the production of alkaloids in a cell-suspension culture was with Berberis species ( Berberis stolonifera) where the yield of berberine alkaloids (eg. jatrorrhizine (62) ) was as high as 10% of the dry weight of the cells °. Cell cultures of Peganum harmaZa produce harman alkaloids in minute amounts.  

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