Development and validation of an efficient low cost bioreactor for furanocoumarin production with Ruta graveolens shoot cultures

Abstract

Despite efforts made to produce plant secondary metabolites from cell suspensions, only a few industrial applications have been successful. Generally, higher yields are obtained when cultivating organs (roots or leafy stems) instead of undifferentiated cells. In this case, new problems arise because of the structure of the plant material, and special bioreactors have to be built for such applications. Furthermore, the high cost of commercial bioreactors may limit the number available for the researcher to carry out many experiments in parallel. Because of this, we developed a very low cost system (i.e; bioreactors) that allows good growth of Ruta graveolens L. shoots and production of secondary metabolites (i.e. furanocoumarins). The development of a very simple auto-priming siphon allows the use of common jars ranging from 3 to 20 litres for temporary immersion cultures. The very low cost of such a home-made bioreactor allows scientists to run many different experiments at the same time. It thus saves time in optimising the culture medium parameters and in replicating trials before reaching the step of final culture system development with highly equipped (costly) bioreactors.