Veena Agrawal
University of Delhi, India
Title: Biotechnological approaches for rapid elicitation of artimisinin in Artemisia annua L employing biotic and abiotic stresses, its isolation and evaluation of bio-efficacy against cancer cell lines, malaria and dengue vectors
Biography
Biography: Veena Agrawal
Abstract
Artemisinin is a naturally occurring biomolecule in Artemisia annua, known for its anti-malarial as well as anti-cancerous activity. In vitro enhancement in artemisinin content has been achieved employing biotic (Piriformospora indica and Agrobacterium rhizogenes strain A4) and abiotic (such as heavy metals and salicylic acid) elicitors with different explants in various MS media compositions were employed. A significant enhancement in artemisinin content of 60% was achieved in shoot cultures co-cultivated with P. indica. Hairy root cultures raised through leaf explants of A. annua when exposed to different concentration of Pb, Hg, Co and SA have shown a tremendous enhancement in artemisinin, the maximum elevation reaching to 1450% in lead nitrate (100 mg/L) supplemented medium over control. For abiotic stress, nodal explants if exposed to various heavy metal (Ag, Cu, Hg, Co and Zn) salts too revealed significant increase in artemisinin production, the optimum being 50% at 100 mg/L of Cu and Zn. The crude extract of A. annua has been fractionated, isolated and characterized through CC, TLC, FT-IR and NMR. Bioassays conducted with crude extract of leaves against larvae of malaria (Anopheles stephensi) and dengue (Aedesaegypti) vectors have shown a strong larvicidal activity and on human oral cancer cell line causing 98.5% mortality. This is our first report of elicitation of artemisinin in A. annua employing P. indica and hairy roots coupled with abiotic stresses.