Production of Shatavarins from in vitro Cultures of Asparagus racemosus Wild.

This study highlights the production of shatavarins from in vitro cultures of Asparagus racemosus. Asparagus racemosus is one of the important medicinal plant found in India, China and other parts of the world. This plant is known to produce the steroidal saponins the shatavarins. The major constraint in conventional multiplication method of A. racemosus through seed propagation is requirement of elaborate pretreatments to break the dormancy and high mortality of seedlings. Callus cultures of Asparagus racemosus were initiated in a modified MS medium supplemented with 1.0 mgl-1 NAA and 2,4-D and 0.5 mgl-1 BAP and compared for growth and production of saponin over a period of 60 days. Saponin production was evaluated at a regular interval of 15 days. Root calli produces more saponin compared to nodal calli and maximum accumulation was found to be 10.38 ± 0.14 mg/g of callus after 60 days of inoculation. Total saponins from the nodal calli were found to be 7.69± 0.136 mg/g of callus. Compared to wild type roots, in vitro cultures showed 20-fold increase in shatavarin levels. HPLC chromatograms of the cultures indicated that the overall saponin profile of in vitro and in vivo plant root extract is similar. Further work needs to done on establishment of suspension cultures, secretion of saponins into liquid media and evaluation of bioactivities to validate the protocol for scale up studies.