Schisandra henryi C. B. Clarke in vitro cultures: a promising tool for the production of lignans and phenolic compounds

Abstract

We initiated and optimized in vitro culture conditions of the endemic Chinese plant species—Schisandra henryi C. B. Clarke. Different types of in vitro solid cultures (microshoot and callus), cultivation periods (10, 20, and 30 days), and selected concentrations of BA, IBA, GA3 (0 to 3 mg/l) in the Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium were tested. The presence of dibenzocyclooctadiene lignans (schisandrin, gomisin G, schisantherin A and B, deoxyschisandrin and schisandrin C), dibenzylbutane lignans (hernicine B), aryltetralin lignans (wulignan A1 and A2, epiwulignan A1, enshicine, epienshicine and dimethylwulignan A1), and triterpenoids: kadsuric acid and schisanhenric acid was confirmed by UHPLC–MS/MS analysis. Using HPLC–DAD, the qualitative and quantitative profiles of dibenzocyclooctadiene lignans, phenolic acids and flavonoids in methanolic extracts from biomass were estimated. The maximum total amounts of these groups of metabolites were 873.71, 840.89 and 421.98 mg/100 g DW, respectively. The main compounds were: schisantherin B (max. 622.59 mg/100 g DW), schisantherin A (max. 143.74 mg/100 g DW), neochlorogenic acid (max. 472.82 mg/100 g DW), caftaric acid (max. 370.81 mg/100 g DW), trifolin (max. 138.56 mg/100 g DW) and quercitrin (max. 122.54 mg/100 g DW). The highest total amounts of secondary metabolites estimated in the extracts from in vitro cultures were, respectively, 13.0, 7.0, and 1.4 times higher than in the leaf extracts analyzed for comparison. This is the first report on the biosynthetic potential of cells from Schisandra henryi in vitro cultures.