Effect of different plant growth regulators and elicitors on the production of cucurbitacins in Ecballium Elaterium callus

The effect of different growth regulators and elicitors on the in vitro production of its main constituents; cucurbitacins E and I, in the callus of Ecballium elaterium growing in Egypt was investigated. The suspension culture was supplemented with biotic stress substance like chitosan, abiotic elicitors like acetic acid, citric acid and salicylic acid and drought stress agents like mannitol. The accumulation of cucurbitacins E and I in callus and media were analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography. The highest content of Cu E (3.6 mg/g DW) and Cu I (1.3 mg/g DW) were achieved when the media supplemented with a combination of 5.0 mg/L NAA + 1.0 mg/L BA and 0.1 mg/L NAA +1.0 mg/L BA, respectively. The use of chitosan (1g/L) was found to give the highest concentration of cucurbitacin E (2.6 mg % w/w) in the media, while the use of 0.5 mM of salicylic acid yielded 1.3 mg/g dry weight of cucurbitacin E in the callus. On the other hand; the highest concentration of cucurbitacin I released to the media (2.4 mg % w/w) and in the callus (0.5 mg/g DW) was obtained by using mannitol 20% as elicitor. Hereby we report the studying of the effects of different plant growth regulators and elicitors on the production of cucurbitacins in E. elaterium plant. Elicitation studies have a promising results in increasing yields of the secondary metabolites along with decreasing the production costs.