Marzieh Babashpour-Asl
1,2, Hedayat Zakizadeh
1*, Hossein Nazemiyeh
2, Alireza Motallebi-Azar
31 Department of Horticultural Sciences, University Campus 2, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran.
2 Research Center for Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
3 Department of Horticultural Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.
Abstract
Background: In this study we report the production and
identification of alkaloid compounds from tissue culture derived from bulb
scales of Galanthus transcaucasicus Fomin (Amaryllidaceae), a
medicinally important plant. Methods:
Explants were prepared from bulb scales of G. transcaucasicus in vitro.
The alkaloid compounds were extracted and analyzed by GC/MS. Results: Isolation
of the alkaloid fraction of the produced bulblets and its GC/MS analysis led to
the identification of an Amaryllidaceae alkaloid homolycorin. Moreover,
galantamine was not detected in the alkaloid fraction. Conclusion: At the present study we report
the first micropropagation work on G. transcaucasicus together with the
isolation of alkaloid homolycorine from in vitro produced bulblets. The
results indicated that G. transcaucasicus bulblets produce
Amaryllidaceae alkaloids and could be a new source of bioactive compounds for
possible pharmaceutical applications. Also, described method could be used for
micropropagation of plantlets from G. transcaucasicus.