Abstract
A fatty alcohol, lauryl alcohol (LA), has been found to be an effective organic solvent for in situ extraction and production of paclitaxel in a suspension plant cell culture. The culture procedure and/or conditions for enhancing paclitaxel productivity by avoiding feed-back inhibition have been studied. 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA), which promotes plant growth, was used for this purpose in the LA-medium two phase culture systems and its effect on the paclitaxel productivity in the culture was examined. Similar callus growth and greater paclitaxel production were observed in the two phase culture systems including ALA compared to the control culture with no treatment. Enhanced paclitaxel production was recorded due to the decreased paclitaxel concentration in the medium avoiding its feed-back inhibition and the increased cellular activity by ALA. Paclitaxel productivity increased by a factor of 3 compared to the control.
