Micropropagation and evaluation of the camptothecin content of Camptotheca acuminata-CPT analysis

Micropropagation and comptothecin content of shoot tips and nodal stem explants of Camptotheca aucminata, a plant known to have anti-cancer properties, derived from in vitro seedlings were investigated. Induction of multiple shoots from shoot tip explants was much greater than that from stem explants. The greatest shoot production induced from shoot tip explants was achieved on woody plant medium(WPM) with 0.01 mg L-1 α-naphthileneacetic acid(NAA) + 0.5 mg L-1 benzyladenine(BA), forming an average of 6.4 buds per explant in 6 wk. Elongation of these multiple shoots was successful at a lower BA level (0.1 mg L-1) on WPM. Individual shoots were rooted on WPM supplemented with indole-3-butyric acid(IBA) or NAA. A concentration of 1 mg L-1 IBA gave the highest percentage of rooting (100%) and root number (5.6 roots/shoot). The camptothecin content in leaves of seedlings and their micropropagated plants raised from the mother plants grown at Taipei Batonical Garden, and Lienhuachin Central, Taiwan were significantly greater than those from Jiangsu Province, China. Comptothecin of seedlings among the 3 provenances significantly differed. Since a highly positive correlation was found between the comptothecin content of seedlings and their micropropagated plants, this suggests that it is feasible to mass propogate C. acuminata plants cultured in vitro in order to obtain desired clones with high camptothecin content.