Production and Accumulation of Phenylpropanoids in Tissue and Organ Cultures of Pimpinella anisum

Recently we reported the comparative studies on the production and accumulation of phenylpropanoids in plants and in cell cultures of anise [1, 2]. It was shown that cell cultures did not produce anethole, the main constituent in the fruit oil of anise, but instead regularly epoxy-pseudoisoeugenol(2-methylbutyrate). We first identified this unusually substituted phenylpropanoid in the root of Pimpinella saxifraga [3, 4], Pseudoisoeugenol derivatives are also common among other Pimpinella species [5, 6]. So far nothing is known about the biosynthesis of pseudoisoeugenols and the enzymes involved. Appropriate material for investigating their biosynthesis would be in vitro cultures of Pimpinella anisum, provided that the pseudoisoeugenols are both produced regularly in sufficient quantities and accumulated in culture. In the following report we describe the phenylpropanoid production by a leaf-differentiating callus culture and a root organ culture of Pimpinella anisum. Their ability to synthesize phenylpropanoids will be compared with that of whole plants. Their suitability for studies on the biosynthesis of pseudoisoeugenols will be discussed briefly. Results and Discussion