Phenolic compound production by Larrea divaricata Cav. plant cell cultures and effect of precursor feeding

Abstract

This paper summarizes progress made in using LarreadivaricataCav. cellcultures for the production of the cytotoxic lignan nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA) and the phenylpropanoids p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid and sinapyl alcohol. In order to improve the biomass formation and production of thesephenoliccompounds, four precursors (L-phenylalanine, cinnamic acid, ferulic acid, and sinapic acid) were fed to L. divaricatacellcultures. FeedingL-phenylalanine (0.5, 1 and 3 mM) resulted in an increase of NDGA of up to 301.35 ± 1.19, 285.23 ± 28.44 and 190.53 ± 19.50 μg/g DW. The addition of 0.5 μM cinnamic acid enhanced the cellculture growth, but not the NDGA production. When cinnamic acid (1 and 1.5 μM), ferulic acid (0.1, 0.5 and 1 mM) and sinapic acid (0.1, 0.5 and 1 mM) were added, the media became too toxic for thecells, and the production of NDGA and the phenylpropanoids was suppressed. The content of p-coumaric acid in the medium supplemented with 3 mM L-phenylalanine increased from 47.43 ± 9.01 to 1157.28 ± 47.79 μg/g DW, whereas the sinapyl alcohol content was not affected by any of the precursorstested, presenting similar values to the control medium.