SYNERGISM EFFECT BETWEEN INOCULUM SIZE AND AGGREGATE SIZE ON FLAVONOID PRODUCTION IN CENTELLA ASIATICA (L.) URBAN (PEGAGA) CELL SUSPENSION CULTURES

Suat-HianTan, Maziah Mahmood, Arbakariya Ariff

Abstract: The present study aimed to investigate the effect of different culture conditions on biomass content and flavonoid production of the elite C. asiatica accession UPM03. When 0.1 g inoculum 25 mL-1 of cell was grown in Murashige & Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 2 mg 2,4-D l-1 and 1 mg kinetin l-1, flavonoids were not significantly produced in cells or released into the culture medium. Production of flavonoid was correlated with the aggregation size and inoculum density. At aggregate size of 250-500 µm with 0.3 g inoculum density 25 mL-1, it gave the highest luteolin content with 35.45 µg g -1 DW. After investigating the effect of culture conditions, i.e. pH, inoculum density, light irradiation and plant growth regulator, we found that with the optimized condition (i.e. 250-500 µm aggregate size, 0.5 g wet cell 25 mL-1 supplemented with 3 mg L-1 2,4-D and 1 mg L-1 kinetin at pH 5.7 under 16h photoperiod) the luteolin content was 11-fold higher than the cell suspension cultured at an inoculum size of 0.3 g wet cell 25 mL-1 with 250-500 µm aggregate size

Keywords: Centella asiatica, flavonoid, light irradiation, pH regime, plant growth regulators

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2013.0210037