Accumulation of quinolizidine alkaloids in plants and cell suspension cultures: genera lupinus, cytisus, baptisia, genista, laburnum, and sophora.

The patterns of quinolizidine alkaloids in cell cultures of 10 species of Fabaceae were analyzed by high-resolution GLC and GLC-MS and compared with the alkaloids present in the leaves of the respective plants. Lupanine was produced in all 10 cell suspension cultures as the main alkaloid. It was accompanied by sparteine, tetrahydrorhombifoline, 17-oxosparteine, 13-hydroxylupanine, 4-hydroxylupanine, 17-oxolupanine, and 13-hydroxylupanine esters as minor alkaloids in some species. The alkaloid patterns of the plants differed markedly in that alpha-pyridone alkaloids were the major alkaloids in the genera Cytisus, Genista, Laburnum and Sophora but were not accumulated in the cell cultures. These data further support the assumption that the pathway leading to lupanine is the basic pathway of quinolizidine alkaloids biosynthesis and that the other alkaloids are derived from lupanine.