Drosera Species (Sundew): In Vitro Culture and the Production of Plumbagin and Other Secondary Metabolites
Carnivorous plants have attracted considerable attention from many biologists for several hundred years, not only because of their special nutritional requirements and ecological adaptations, but also because of their value as medicinal herbs (Lecoufle 19
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1 General Account Carnivorous plants have attracted considerable attention from many biologists for several hundred years, not only because of their special nutritional requirements and ecological adaptations, but also because of their value as medicinal herbs (Lecoufle 1990). Among them, Charles Darwin studied insectivorous plants in detail and used them in his evolutionary studies (Darwin 1875). The genus Drosera, which consists of about 125 species (Culham and Gornall 1994), represents a really good example of plant evolution and functional adaptation. Importantly, extracts from numerous species of Drosera have been traditionally used for various medicinal purposes, especially as efficient agents against respiratory diseases (Table 1). These therapeutic effects are thought to correlate with the content of secondary metabolites, namely naphthoquinones which are synthesized and accumulated in various Drosera species (Zenk et al. 1969; Culham and Gornall 1994). Among naphthoquinones, the most intensively studied has been plumbagin, because of its broad medicinal and other effects (see Finnie and van Staden 1993). However, many Drosera species also contain the second of the two most abundant naphthoquinones of Droseraceae, called 7-methyljuglone. Besides this, Drosera plants synthesize several minor, but unique, naphthoquinones as well as a broad spectrum of ftavonoids with practical or potential medicinal use. Plumbagin production in vivo and in vitro has been well described, especially for the two South-African species D. capensis and D. natalensis, by Crouch et al. (1990). Therefore, in this chapter attention is focused on new data on the production of 7-methyljuglone, plumbagin and minor naphthoquinones as well as ftavonoids in some new Drosera species, e.g. D. spathulata and D. rotundifolia. 1 Institute of Plant Genetics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Akademicka 2, SK-950 07 Nitra, Slovak Republic, Present address till end of April1999: Botanisches Institute, Venusbergweg 22, D-53115 Bonn, Germany 2 Department of Plant Physiology, Comenius University Bratislava, Mlynska dolina B-2, SK-842 15 Bratislava, Slovak Republic 3 Department of Experimental Botany and Genetics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, P.J. Safarik University, Manesova 23, SK-04167 Kosice, Slovak Republic 4 Institute of Botany, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dubravska cesta 14, SK-842 23 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Biotechnology in Agriculture and Forestry, Vol. 43 Medicinal and Aromatic Plants XI (ed. by Y.P.S. Bajaj) ©Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1999
J. Samaj et al.
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Table 1. Medicinal and other properties of Drosera and naphthoquinones
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Reference
Against old age and arteriosclerosis Allelophatic Anti-asthma Anti-cancer
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