effects of light and differentiation on gingerol and zingiberene production in callus culture of zingiber officinale rosc.

ginger (zingiber officinale rosc.) is a herbaceous, rhizomatous, perennial, which its rhizomes are used as an important spices and medicine all over the world. the aromatic principles include zingiberine, while the pungent principles are known as gingeroles. callus culture of the plants can produce the same compounds exist on their parent plants. the aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of light and differentiation on gingerol and zingiberine production in callus cultures of z. officinale. a sterile in vitro plant was prepared by sterilization and subculture of buds, excised aseptically and inoculated into sterile culture jars containing murashige and skoog’s (ms) medium and were incubated at 25 ± 2 °c under a 16/8 h light/dark cycle. then different parts of the sterile plant were inoculated in ms medium supplemented with different concentration of 2,4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid and kinetin. the jars were separated into two groups, one incubated in dark and the other one in light environment, permanently. production of metabolites was evaluated by tlc. some of the metabolites were produced only in presence of light. no gingerol and zingiberen was detected on tlc plates of the dedifferentiated callus grown in light or dark environment. it seems that the production of gingerol and zingiberen in callus culture of z. officinale is correlated with some sort of differentiation.