Production of deoxyschizandrin and γ-schizandrin in shoot-differentiating and undifferentiating callus cultures of Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill. (Chinese magnolia vine)

Shoot-differentiating and undifferentiating callus cultures of Schisandra chinensis were cultured, respectively, on six and two variants of the Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium, differing in the concentration of cytokinin, 6-benzyladenine (BA) and auxin, α-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA). In methanolic extracts from the biomass of both types of culture the amounts of two lignans: deoxyschizandrin and γ-schizandrin were estimated using the HPLC method. The levels of both compounds in the shoot-differentiating callus extracts were dependent on the concentration of BA and NAA in the MS medium variants. The amounts of deoxyschizandrin were high and varied over a wide range from 34.23 to 308.51 mg 100 g−1 dry weight (DW); the amounts of γ-schizandrin were of a different order and ranged from 1.07 to 22.09 mg 100 g−1 DW. In the extracts from undifferentiating callus the amounts of both compounds were lower and almost identical on the tested variants of the MS medium, equal, respectively, to about 18.5 mg 100 g−1 DW deoxyschizandrin, and about 1.0 mg 100 g−1 DW γ-schizandrin. The maximum amounts of deoxyschizandrin were obtained on the MS medium variant containing 3 mg l−1 BA and 1 mg l−1 NAA. These amounts were 7.5 and 5.1 times higher, respectively, than in the extracts from the leaves (41.01 mg 100 g−1 DW) and fruits (60.72 mg 100 g−1 DW) of native plant, analyzed for comparison. The maximum amount of γ-schizandrin in shoot-differentiating callus (22.09 mg 100 g−1 DW) was comparable with its amount in the leaves (22.27 mg 100 g−1 DW), but 3 times lower than in the fruits (66.50 mg 100 g−1 DW). The obtained high amounts of deoxyschizandrin in the extracts of shoot-differentiating callus are of interest from the practical perspective.