Scopolamine Yield in Cultured Roots of Duboisia myoporoides Improved by a Novel Two-stage Culture Method

Abstract

Localization analysis of scopolamine and hyoscyamine 6β-hydroxylase (H6H ; EC 1.14.11.11) contents in Duboisia root cultures showed that scopolamine biosynthesis was accompanied by root elongation. A new two-stage culture method in which the first stage promotes lateral root induction and the second stage enhances root elongation therefore was devised to obtain high scopolamine production. Consequent development of the most suitable media for each stage of culture increased scopolamine productivity 1.8 times that obtained with a one-stage culture. A total of 2500 mg dm^-3 of scopolamine was produced when this two-stage culture was combined with our high-density culture method.