Chitosan mediated enhancement of hydrolysable tannin in Phyllanthus debilis Klein ex Willd via plant cell suspension culture

- This is the first ever report where use of chitosan has been done to enhance the production of the hydrolysable tannin in P. debilis using cell suspension culture technique.
- Chitosan as a potential elicitor for the enhancement of hydrolysable tannin in cell suspension culture of P.debilis.
- The chitosan elicitor treated cells were able to induce the accumulation of hydrolysable tannin when compare to the untreated cultures.
- Chitosan mediated elicitation of hydrolysable tannin is cost effective and optimum production of hydrolysable tannin can be achieved in a short period.
- The protocol would extend the feasibility of scale-up production of hydrolysable tannin on commercial scale utilizing bioreactors in future.

Phyllanthus debilis Klein ex Willd. is wild medicinal plant used in the traditional system of medicine. This plant has been actively used for hepatoprotection and to cure many diseases including jaundice and so on; which leads to complete extinction of this particular species. Therefore, the chitosan mediated cost effective cell suspension method has been developed for the production of hydrolysable tannin. The hydrolysable tannins are the main therapeutically active constituents with antioxidant, anticancer, and antimicrobial properties. An in vitro cell suspension culture was optimized by adding chitosan for production of hydrolysable tannin. According to the growth kinetics, a maximum biomass of 4.46 ± 0.06 g fresh cell weight and 1.33 ± 0.04 g dry cell weight were obtained from the optimal suspension medium consisted of MS medium + 0.5 mg L−1 BAP + 1.5 mg L−1 NAA. Chitosan was treated at the stationary phase which leads to the highest accumulation of hydrolysable tannin compared to the untreated control. Hydrolysable tannin was observed and compared using HPLC at the Rt of 4.91 in both chitosan treated and untreated cells. This is the first ever report where use of chitosan has been done to enhance the production of the hydrolysable tannin in P. debilis using cell suspension culture technique.