Determination of Hypericin Content in Callus and Cell Suspension Cultures of Hypericum triquetrifolium Turra

Hypericum triquetrifolium Turra. is a valuable medicinal plant owing to source of many bioactive compounds. Hypericin is one of the significant components among these compounds. The aim of this study was to develope an efficient method allowing to improve hypericin production from calli and cell suspension cultures of Hypericum triquetrifolium Turra. Callus formation was obtained from axenic leaf explants grown in Murashige and Skoog (MS) salts supplemented with 1 mg l 6-benzyl adenine (BA) and 2 mg l α-naphtaleneacetic acid (NAA) and 1 mg l (BA) + 0.4 mg l 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). Growth medium of cell suspension culture was the same with callus medium but devoid of agar. The increase of biomass in cell suspension culture was obtained between 6.31-6.28 fold compared to the first day of culture, on the 20 day. We assayed hypericin content in methanolic extracts of calli and cell suspension cultures of H. triquetrifolium Turra. Hypericin contents of the samples were measured at 589 nm by a UV-VIS spectrophotometer. Analysis of hypericin contents showed that levels found in callus were 0.0527 and 0.0485 mg g, while in cell suspension cultures these rates were 0.0018 and 0.0016 mg g, suggesting that the accumulation of this compound in cell suspension needs further modifications.