Role of PGRs in anticancer alkaloids (vincristine and vinblastine) production

Abstract

The synthetic compounds used as medicines serve a number of side effects and therefore, plants are used as an alternative source these days. One of such plants is Catharanthus roseus. It produces nearly 130 alkaloids, out of which vincristine and vinblastine are two major anti-cancerous alkaloids. These are structurally similar but differ in their clinical action. In the natural habitat the amount of alkaloids produced is very low. So, the plant is grown in vitro on MS medium supplemented with different plant growth hormones such as auxins, cytokinins, methyl jasmonate (MeJA), ethephon, abscisic acid, salicylic acid (SA), chlormequat chloride (CCC), gibberellica acid (GA3) and triazoles. Ethephon, SA, CCC, and triazoles positively affect the production of vincristine and vinblastine whereas abscisic acid and GA3 reduces their production. On the other hand, MeJA has no significant effect on their production. Different combinations of auxins and cytoki- nins have also been studied on the production of vincristine and vinblastine.