Effect of Biotic Elicitors on Alkaloids Production in Catharanthus roseus Cell Suspension Cultures

Catharanthus roseus is a medicinal plantthat is important because of production of many alkaloids, including anticancer drugs, Vincristine and Vinblastine. Vincristine and Vinblastine are among the most important drugs for cancer treatment, but the performance of these two compounds is relatively low and the approximate amount of them in the plant is 0.0005%. Due to the high price of these compounds and small amount in this plant, efforts to increase the production of these compounds have led to extensive researches on this plant. In this experiment to study the effect of fungal extracts and time of the alkaloids production in Catharanthus roseuse cell suspension culture, test factorial randomized complete block designed with three replications. For this purpose, after preparation of cell suspensions, extracts of fungi P. indica, T. tomentosum and fungal extracts combined of P. indica and T. tomentosum at a concentration of 1% v/v was add to the cell suspension. Sampling in the time period (0, 24, 48, 72h) after the treatment were performed, and Vinblastine and Vincristine alkaloids were measured by using HPLC method. The results showed that three fungal extracts, P. indica, T. tomentosum and mixture of the fungal extract (P + T), increases the amount of Vinblastine, compared to the control and the greatest impact has been on fungal extract T. tomentosum. The average comparison of Vincristine between fungal extracts showed that the highest amount of Vincristine in the control samples and fungal extracts decrease the amount of Vincristine.