In-vitro production of secondary metabolites in Gymnema sylvestre

Abstract

Gymnemic acid (GA) is the principle constituent in Gymnema sylvestre , which is used in control of diabetics. Standardization of protocol for in-vitro culture and suspension culture to optimize the GA production was experimented. Gymnemic acid in yellowish-brown calli was 251.73 mg 100 g-1 dw when compared to 26.31 mg 100 g-1 dw in grey calli, which was mainly due to accumulation of gymnemic acid during culture. The cells were run in suspension culture at 120 rpm and sub-cultured every 20 days. The cell density, dry weight of cells, packed cell volume and viability of cells were the highest on day 15 irrespective of the treatments. The doubling time of cells was three days. The highest gymnemic acid was recorded in auxin-free medium (579.2 mg 100 ml-1) followed by sucrose 60 g l-1 (487.96 mg 100 ml -1) and mannitol (439.66 mg 100 ml-1). The fluorescent nature of gymnemic acid was identified and photo-micrographed.