Production of deoxyschizandrin and γ-schizandrin in shoot-differentiating and undifferentiating callus cultures of Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill. (Chinese magnolia vine).

Shoot-differentiating and undifferentiating callus cultures of Schisandra chinensis were cultured, respectively, on six and two variants of the Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium, differing in the concentration of cytokinin, 6-benzyladenine (BA) and auxin, α-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA). In methanolic extracts from the biomass of both types of culture the amounts of two lignans: deoxyschizandrin and γ-schizandrin were estimated using the HPLC method. The levels of both compounds in the shoot-differentiating callus extracts were dependent on the concentration of BA and NAA in the MS medium variants. The amounts of deoxyschizandrin were high and varied over a wide range from 34.23 to 308.51 mg 100 g(-1) dry weight (DW); the amounts of γ-schizandrin were of a different order and ranged from 1.07 to 22.09 mg 100 g(-1) DW. In the extracts from undifferentiating callus the amounts of both compounds were lower and almost identical on the tested variants of the MS medium, equal, respectively, to about 18.5 mg 100 g(-1) DW deoxyschizandrin, and about 1.0 mg 100 g(-1) DW γ-schizandrin. The maximum amounts of deoxyschizandrin were obtained on the MS medium variant containing 3 mg l(-1) BA and 1 mg l(-1) NAA. These amounts were 7.5 and 5.1 times higher, respectively, than in the extracts from the leaves (41.01 mg 100 g(-1) DW) and fruits (60.72 mg 100 g(-1) DW) of native plant, analyzed for comparison. The maximum amount of γ-schizandrin in shoot-differentiating callus (22.09 mg 100 g(-1) DW) was comparable with its amount in the leaves (22.27 mg 100 g(-1) DW), but 3 times lower than in the fruits (66.50 mg 100 g(-1) DW). The obtained high amounts of deoxyschizandrin in the extracts of shoot-differentiating callus are of interest from the practical perspective.