Production of essential oil from Artemisia Dubia tissue culture

Abstract

Callus cultures of Artemisia dubia Wall. ex Bess., the member of the family Asteraceae (Compositae), were initiated by placing sterilized leaf explants on semi-solid basal MS media, containing 1 mg/1 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and 0.1 mg/1 kinetin. Suspension cultures were also initiated by using callus cultures on the same media (except without the agar). The chemical constituents of essential oil from callus and suspension cultures were identified and compared to essential oil from intact plant leaves by using Gas Chromatography (GC) and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). It was found that callus and suspension cultures produced the same major chemical constituent as the intact plants, sesquiterpenes namely davanone, but it was very low level of davanone recovered from their cultures. Some biotechnological techniques were used for improving the cell capacity to produce davanone. Nylon meshes were used for immobilising cell whilst various concentrations of geranyl acetate were fed for biotransformation process and adsorbent was also used for adsorbing the essential oil excreted from the cells. The level of davanone was increased after using these techniques.