Dioscorea birmanica Prain & Burkill is a medicinal plant which its rhizome has been used with other medicinal plants for the treatment of cancers, septicemia diseases and AIDS [1]. It has been reported that the regenerated shoots of D. birmanica can synthesize and accumulate lower amount of bioactive compounds than those of mother rhizomes [2]. Therefore, the enhancement of bioactive compounds in the regenerated shoots by elicitation with yeast extract (YE) at different times of culture period was investigated. The 6-weeks old regenerated shoots were cultured on MS medium supplemented with or without 3 g/l YE for 1, 2, 4 and 6 weeks. It was indicated that the shoots cultured on medium supplemented with 3 g/l YE for 2 weeks contained the highest total saponin content of 1.23 ± 0.05 mg diosgenin/g DW or 1.93 times higher than that of the non-YE shoots cultured for 2 weeks. However, YE had no effect on total phenolic content and DPPH radical scavenging activity of D. birmanica shoots cultured under aseptic conditions.
References
[1] Tewtrakul S, Itharat A. Bioorg Med Chem 2006; 14: 8707–8711
[2] Jirakiattikul Y, Rithichai P, Songsri O, Ruangnoo S, Itharat A. Acta Physiol Plant 2016; 38: 249.