PRODUCTION OF ANTI-MALARIAL AND ANTI-MIGRAINE DRUGS IN TISSUE CULTURE OF ARTEMISIA ANNUA AND TANACETUM PARTHENIUM

Both Tanacetum parthenium and Artemisia annua are medicinal plants from the Compositae family sharing a rich and varied terpenoid chemistry. A. annua produces the sesquiterpene lactone artemisinin, a promising alternative to chloroquine in the treatment of malaria, whilst the anti-migraine properties of T. parthenium are probably due to the sesquiterpene lactone parthenolide.

My objective has been to establish tissue cultures of both species, able to accumulate the sesquiterpenoid active principles of the parents, that might thus serve as a source of biomass for drug production.
Cultures of both species were readily obtained under a variety of hormonal and photoperiod regimes, but initial results were disappointing.
Neither culture line accumulated terpenoids: instead T. parthenium cultures produced the coumarin isofraxidin, whilst A. annua produced a triglyceride and the coumarin scopoletin.
Recently, however, conditions have been found under which advanced intermediates of the sesquiterpene biosynthetic pathway do accumulate, and this may lead to the eventual in vitro production of both drugs.

WOCMAP I – Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Conference: part 4 of 4

G.D. Brown

Artemisia annua, Tanacetum parthenium, Compositae, artemisinin, parthenolide, sesquiterpene lactones

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1993.330.35