Establishment of adventitious root cultures of Echinacea purpurea for the production of caffeic acid derivatives.

Echinacace purpurea (purple cone flower) is an important medicinal plant, and widely used for phytochemical purposes. The roots are traditionally used in herbal medicines and dietary supplements as an immunostimulant in treating inflammatory and viral diseases. Extensive research work has been carried out on both the induction of adventitious roots from E. purpurea as well as established small-scale (shake flask) to large-scale (bioreactor) cultures for the production of adventitious root biomass and caffeic acid derivatives. This chapter describes the methodologies of induction of adventitious roots from explants of E. purpurea, propagation of adventitious roots in suspension cultures, estimation of total phenolics, flavonoids, and antioxidant activities. The detailed methodology for high-performance liquid chromatographic analysis of caffeic acid derivatives present in the adventitious roots is also discussed.