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Differential alkaloid profile in Uncaria tomentosa micropropagated plantlets and root cultures

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Abstract

The alkaloids of Uncaria tomentosa micropropagated plantlets and root cultures were isolated and identified by NMR and mass spectrometry. Plantlets yielded pteropodine (1), isopteropodine (2), mitraphylline (3), isomitraphylline (4), uncarine F (5), speciophylline (6), rhynchophylline (7) and isorhynchophylline (8). In plantlets growing under continuous light, tetracyclic alkaloids 7 and 8 decreased from 20 ± 1.8 at 2 months to 2.2 ± 0.33 mg/g dry wt at 6 months, while the pentacyclic alkaloids 1–4 increased from 7.7 ± 1.4 to 15 ± 0.05 mg/g dry wt, supporting their biogenetic conversion. Micropropagated plantlets produced four times more alkaloids (27.6 ± 3.1 mg/g dry wt) than greenhouse plants. Plantlet roots yielded 3, 4, 8 and the glucoindole alkaloids 3α-dihydrocadambine (9) and dolichantoside (10), the last one not previously found in Uncaria.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT Grant 105019). A. Huerta-Heredia thanks CONACyT-Mexico for a doctoral fellowship (199757). We are grateful to Professor Michel Frédérich, Institut de Pharmacie, Université de Liège, Belgium, for a generous gift of dolichanthoside. We wish to thank C. Fontaine for technical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biotecnología y Bioingeniería, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Av. I. P. N. 2508. Col. San Pedro Zacatenco, 07360, Mexico, DF, Mexico

    Gabriela R. Luna-Palencia, Ariana A. Huerta-Heredia & Ana C. Ramos-Valdivia

  2. Departamento de Química, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Av. I. P. N. 2508. Col. San Pedro Zacatenco, 07360, Mexico, DF, Mexico

    Carlos M. Cerda-García-Rojas

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  1. Gabriela R. Luna-Palencia
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  2. Ariana A. Huerta-Heredia
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  3. Carlos M. Cerda-García-Rojas
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  4. Ana C. Ramos-Valdivia
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Correspondence to Ana C. Ramos-Valdivia.

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Luna-Palencia, G.R., Huerta-Heredia, A.A., Cerda-García-Rojas, C.M. et al. Differential alkaloid profile in Uncaria tomentosa micropropagated plantlets and root cultures. Biotechnol Lett 35, 791–797 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-012-1128-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-012-1128-8

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