Plant Biotechnology, for alkaloid production

Modern biotechnological methods of producing potentially useful alkaloids, particularly plant cell culturing, is an area of fundamental importance and has been receiving a lot of attention. An analysis of the state of the art and where it is headed is discussed here by a well-known group from The Netherlands in Plant Biotechnology for the Production of Alkeiloids Present Status and Prospects. ... 

H. J. G. ten Hoopen, Plant biotechnology for the production of alkaloids Present status and prospects, in The Alkaloids, Vol. 40 (A. Brossi, ed.), 1-188, Academic Press, New York, 1991. 

In Table XIV through XVIII the occurrence of alkaloids in various types of cell and tissue cultures of Atropa, Datura, Duboisia, Hyoscyamus, and various other species in the family Solanaceae is summarized. From these data it is clear that the production of tropane alkaloids in cell suspension cultures is rather low. Only in root cultures has production similar to, or even higher than, the original plant been obtained. For this reason an extensive discussion on efforts to improve production in cell suspension cultures is not useful instead, we briefly deal with the application of plant biotechnology for the improvement of the tropane alkaloid-producing plants. Finally, we discuss the bioconversion of added precursors. 

In this chapter we have reviewed the state of the art of plant cell biotechnology for the production of commercially important alkaloids. Plant cell and tissue culture methods play an important role in plant... 

Verpoorte R, van der Heijden R, van Gulik WM, ten Hoopen FUG (1991) Plant biotechnology for production of alkaloids. In Brossi A (ed) The alkaloids. Academic, San Diego... 

Because of their economic interest, biotechnological production of these alkaloids would be of great interest particularly as it could contribute to reduce the illicit production of opium, the raw material for heroin manufacture. As a result, extensive studies have been made on the application of plant cell and tissue culture for the production of opium alkaloids. Furthermore bioconversion of certain semisynthetic products has been studied. A series of patents in this field has been filed (Table XXII). 

Of the various pharmaceuticals derived from plants, the Cinchona alkaloids are probably, by volume the largest market, with an estimated production of 300-500 metric tons a year of pure quinine (32) and quinidine (33). These alkaloids are extracted from the bark of Cinchona trees, which require about 10 years to mature before harvesting. Furthermore most of the plantations are in areas not easily accessible, often threatened by infections with Phytophthora cinnamomi. This leads to many uncertainties in planning of the production, and as a result alternative sources for the alkaloids are of interest. Various synthetic aproaches have been used (552) but are not of industrial interest. Therefore, interest in biotechnological approaches is large. Patents related to the production of quinoline alkaloids by means of plant cell cultures are summarized in Table XXVIII. 

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