Ursolic Acid and Oleanolic Acid Productions in Elicited Cell Suspension Cultures of Hedyotis corymbosa

Hedyotis corymbosa is a weedy herb belongs to Rubiaceae family. It has many medicinal properties. This plant is well known to contain bioactive medicinal compounds: Ursolic Acid (UA) and Oleanolic Acid (OA). There are vast studies that have been conducted to extract bioactive triterpenes such as ursolic and oleanolic acid from the natural plant of Hedyotis corymbosa. The objective of this study was to analyze the effect of different concentrations of methyl jasmonate on biomass and triterpenes (UA and OA) production in cell suspension culture of H. corymbosa. Cell suspension of Hedyotis corymbosa cultures were successfully induced using 2,4-D plant hormone and then were elicited with methyl jasmonate at different concentrations. The addition of methyl jasmonate elicitor at different concentrations (10, 50, 100 and 200 μM) cause a reduction in the growth of H. corymbosa cell suspension. It was found that cell suspension biomass decreased 52% in the presence of 10 μM methyl jasmonate concentration after 12 days of culture. However, both ursolic acid (ursa-9(11), 12-dien-3-ol acid) and oleanolic acid (olean-12-en-28-oic acid) productions were significantly increased in the presence of 200 and 100 μM methyl jasmonate, respectively, compared to control. In conclusion, the application of different concentrations of methyl jasmonate did not show any significant increase to cell suspension growth but were able to enhance the triterpenes (UA and OA) productions compared to the control. The highest UA (8.4 mg) and OA (17 mg) yields were obtained at 200 and 100 μM methyl jasmonate, respectively, on the third weeks of culture.