Physiological Peculiarities of Lavandula Vera MM Cell Suspension Culture in Stirred Tank Reactor

ABSTRACT

Plants are an immense source of valuable secondary metabolites used as pharmaceuticals, food additives, fragrances, dues and agrochemicals. Production of plant derived metabolites using classical technologies is connected with several difficulties, resulting from seasonal, geographical and soil features. The isolation of such metabolites (usually in very low amounts) from huge plant mass is labour-, time-consuming and makes the process more expensive. Biotechnology offers an opportunity to exploit the plant cells, tissues, organs or entire organisms by growing them in vitro to get desired compounds.

Cell suspension culture of Lavandula vera, an attractive producer of rosmarinic acid (naturally occurring compound with a wide spectrum of biological activities), was cultivated in 3 L stirred tank reactor under the previously optimized culture conditions. The utilization of carbon source (sucrose, glucose and fructose), nitrogen and phosphorus sources were followed during the batch cultivation. The physiological peculiarities of the Lavender cells as well as the high content of rosmarinic acid (132.3 mg/g wry weight) were discussed with the respective stress levels (created from the mechanical agitation). A strong correlation (correlation coefficient 0.96) between growth of the cells and the medium conductivity changes has been observed. These findings are discussed with respect to the possibility to use such relation for biomonitoring purposes.

This paper is dedicated to the 70^th birthday of Prof. Dr. Mladenka Ilieva

Keywords:

• bioreactor
• cell suspension
• Lavandula vera MM
• rosmarinic acid