Agriculture Reference
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source of anticancer compounds with activity against various kinds of carcinoma
(Svoboda and Blake
1975
; Schmeller and Wink
1998
) along with it also houses
a large number of Terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIAs) (Svoboda and Blake
1975
;
Van der Heijden et al.
1989
;
2004
), which possess pharmacological activity against
different other diseases. The aerial parts of the plant contain 0.2-1 % alkaloids
(Bruneton
1993
). About 130 alkaloids have been isolated from
C. roseus
, of par-
ticular interest is a group of 20 dimeric alkaloids (Evans
1996
). However of this
large number of chemical compounds, only few (~ 11) are regularly investigated
and even lesser (~ 8) are commercially available (Hisiger and Jolicoeur
2007
). VCR
and VLB are two most important alkaloids which can be found in
C. roseus
and are
known for their antineoplastic activity. Ajmalicine and serpentine are the antihyper-
tensive agents (Shanks et al.
1998
), used to combat heart arrhythmias and improves
the blood circulation in the brain (Moreno et al.
1995
; Schmeller and Wink
1998
).
Other alkaloidal fractions from the leaves including vindoline are antibacterial in
nature. Pericalline, perivine, VLB, VCR, carosine etc. show antiviral activity
in vi-
tro
against vaccinia and polio type III viruses with pericalline being the most effec-
tive. Vincolidine, lochrovicine, catharanthine and vindoline shows diuretic activity.
In different Indian system of medicine it is used as an antidiabetic agent (Singh et al.
2001
), catharanthine, leurosine, lochnerine, tetrahydroalstonine, vindolineproduce
varying degrees of lowering of blood sugar in rats. An alkaloidal mixture obtained
from flowers showed significant hypoglycaemic activity in rabbits (Wealth of India
1992
). Velban
®
is a trade name for Vinblastine sulphate and is employed mainly
for the treatment of Hodgkin's disease in addition lymphosarcoma, choricarcinoma
and carcinoma of the lungs, breast and other organs in acute and chronic leukemia.
Oncovin
®
sold as Vincristine sulphate, arrests mitosis in metaphase and is very suc-
cessful for the treatment of acute leukemia in children and lymphocytic leukemia.
It is also administered against Hodgkin's disease, Wilm's tumour, rhabdosarcoma,
reticulum cell sarcoma and neuroblastoma. VCR is superior to VLB in the treat-
ment of lymphosarcoma and has greater toxicity (Wealth of India
1992
). In terms of
production of VLB and VCR, India ranks third in the world and is exporting these
alkaloids to European countries. High demand and low yield of these alkaloids in
the plant has led to research for alternative means for their production.
Elicitation of
C.roseus
The use of a variety of biotic and abiotic elicitors or signal molecules in cell cultures
frequently increases the yield of certain secondary compounds, perhaps due to their
role in defense (Zhao and Verpoorte
2007
; Aijaz et al.
2011
). The biosynthesis of
secondary metabolites in
C. roseus
cell cultures was lucidly reviewed by Moreno
et al. (
1995
) and important factors affecting the production of indole alkaloids were
discussed. Further Moreno et al. (
1996
) studied the suspension cultures of
C. roseus
cell under the influence of fungal filtrate of
Phytium aphanidermatum
as an elici-
tor. Although there was no enhancement in alkaloid synthesis was observed but the
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