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Withanolide Production in Hairy Root Culture of Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal: A Review

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Plant Cell and Tissue Differentiation and Secondary Metabolites

Part of the book series: Reference Series in Phytochemistry ((RSP))

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Abstract

Indian ginseng [Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal; Solanaceae] is a significant aromatic medicinal as well as industrial plant in India and in other regions. The plant has numerous pharmaceutical uses owing to synthesis of steroidal lactones, “withanolides,” mainly in leaves and roots. Hence, Govt. of India has graded this aromatic plant in top 36 cultivated precious medicinal plants in focus of immense requirement for market and medicine production. The traditional cultivation method of W. somnifera suffers from severe shortage in production to provide sufficient raw materials for phytochemical synthesis and medicinal formulations due to biotic and abiotic factors, poor seed germination, loss or low seed viability, etc. This necessitates consistent supply of raw materials to produce secondary metabolites by exploiting biotechnological tools like cell/organ cultures. Over the few decades, numerous approaches have been made to develop and optimize cell and organ culture protocols for W. somnifera such as direct and indirect organogenesis, suspension-based shoot and cell cultures, adventitious root culture, hairy root culture, and plant transformation for production of plants and withanolides. Several reports indicated the potential utilization of in vitro cell/organ cultures to be put into use in large-scale commercial multiplication of plants and secondary metabolite production as in Panax ginseng and other plants. This review presents a comprehensive account of works performed on hairy root culture of W. somnifera in the last two decades.

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Abbreviations

ASA:

Acetyl salicylic acid

b-CLAMS:

Beta-carotene linoleic acid model system

DPPH:

Alpha,alpha-diphenyl-beta-picrylhydrazyl

DW:

Dry weight

FW:

Fresh weight

g:

Gram

GI:

Growth index

HPLC:

High performance liquid chromatography

HR:

Hairy root

IAA:

Indole acetic acid

JA:

Jasmonic acid

KH2PO4:

Potassium dihydrogen phosphate

KNO3:

Potassium nitrate

LB:

Luria-Bertani medium

MeJ:

Methyl jasmonate

MEP:

Non-mevalonate pathway

Mg:

Milligram

mM:

Millimolar

MVA:

Mevalonate pathway

NADPH:

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate

NB:

Nutrient Broth medium

NH4+:

Ammonium ion

NO3−:

Nitrate ion

PAL:

Phenylalanine ammonia lyase

Ri-plasmid:

Hairy root-inducing plasmid

SA:

Salicylic acid

T:

Temperature

TCP:

Tricalcium phosphate medium

T-DNA:

Transfer DNA

TIS:

Traditional Indian system

WS:

Withania somnifera

YEP:

Yeast extract peptone

YMB:

Yeast mannitol broth

μg:

Microgram

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Acknowledgments

The first author is thankful to the Korea Research Fellowship Program (2017H1D3A1A01054325) through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Molecular Genetics and Genomics Laboratory, Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, South Korea

    Ganeshan Sivanandhan & Yong Pyo Lim

  2. Department of Botany, Periyar E. V. R College (Autonomous), Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India

    Natesan Selvaraj

  3. Department of Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India

    Andy Ganapathi

Authors
  1. Ganeshan Sivanandhan
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  2. Natesan Selvaraj
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  3. Andy Ganapathi
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  4. Yong Pyo Lim
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Ganeshan Sivanandhan or Yong Pyo Lim .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, M.L.Sukhadia university, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India

    Kishan Gopal Ramawat

  2. Department of Pharmaceutical Botany, Jagiellonian University, Medical College, Kraków, Poland

    Halina Maria Ekiert

  3. Amarillo, TX, USA

    Shaily Goyal

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Sivanandhan, G., Selvaraj, N., Ganapathi, A., Lim, Y.P. (2020). Withanolide Production in Hairy Root Culture of Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal: A Review. In: Ramawat, K., Ekiert, H., Goyal, S. (eds) Plant Cell and Tissue Differentiation and Secondary Metabolites. Reference Series in Phytochemistry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11253-0_26-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11253-0_26-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-11253-0

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