Improved accumulation of phenylethanoid glycosides by precursor feeding to suspension culture of Cistanche salsa

Effects of some precursors on phenylethanoid glycosides (PeGs) accumulation in Cistanche salsa cell suspension cultures were investigated. Precursors such as tyrosine, phenylalanine, caffeic acid and cucumber juice at proper concentrations could increase the total accumulation of PeGs (echinacoside, acteoside, 2′-acetylacteoside) by 50%, 12%, 12% and 23%, respectively. Under the combined feeding of precursors at proper concentrations, the total production of PeGs in bio-staged culture reached the highest amount of 1358.1 mg l−1 (640.8 mg echinacoside l−1, 689.4 mg acteoside l−1 and 54.9 mg 2′-acetylacteoside l−1), which was about two-fold of that in the control. This study showed promise for obtaining large-scale production of active ingredients in plant cells by the solid–liquid two step culture (SLTSC) technique and also provided for the first time an example for producing PeGs by C. salsa cell culture. The improved production of PeGs was higher than that in previous reports on PeG production by Cistanche deserticola cell culture fed with precursors.