Influence of Elicitation on Glaucium flavum Cultures in in Vitro Conditions

Abstract

Glaucium flavum Crantz is a medicinal plant species which contains high variety of isoquinoline alkaloids, the main of which is the alkaloid glaucine, possessing antitussive activity. In vitro cultivation was investigated as an alternative and sustainable approach for plant cultivation of this species which is characterized by decreasing distribution. The biotechnological production of secondary metabolites could be improved by the addition of elicitors such as jasmonic acid, methyl jasmonate and yeast extract to the artificial medium. The seed germination of G. flavum was over 60% in all examined media supplemented with the abovementioned elicitors. They did not stimulate higher alkaloid production but the plants of some of the investigated in vitro cultures had similar percentage of the crude alkaloid mixture, about 3%, to the native plant population from which they had derived. The quantity of the alkaloids varied but their content in the studied samples remained similar.