Somatic embryogenesis and secondary metabolite production through bioreactor culture of Siberian ginseng (Eleutherococcus senticosus)

Siberian ginseng (Eleutherococcus senticosus) is an endangered medicinal woody plant genus distributed mainly in northeast Asia. Eleutherococcus species contain eleutherosides including eleutheroside A, 13, C, D, E, F, G and complex polysaccharides as active ingredients used for their analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic and diuretic action. Somatic embryos were induced for large-scale production in bioreactor of essential metabolites to apply different medicinal purposes. Embryogenic calli were obtained from leaf explants of E. senticosus after 12 weeks of culture on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 1 mg L-1 2,4-D. Matured somatic embryos were germinated on MS medium containing 4 mg L-1 gibberellic acid 3 (GA(3)). Plantlets grew well at 1/2 and 113 strength of MS medium. HPLC analysis revealed that the total phenolic, total flavonoid and eleutherosides were significantly higher in leaves of field grown plants as compared to different stages of somatic embryos cultured in bioreactor. On the other hand, secondary metabolite contents increased with light qualities. Among embryos, metabolite contents were higher in germinated embryos compared to other embryo stages. The results suggested that culture environments should be optimized to produce high contents of secondary metabolites.