ENHANCED RECOVERY OF SOLAVETIVONE FROM AGROBACTERIUM TRANSFORMED ROOT CULTURES OF HYOSCYAMUS-MUTICUS USING INTEGRATED PRODUCT EXTRACTION

The integrated recovery of solavetivone from fungus elicited 'hairy root'' cultures of Hyoscyamus Muticus is examined using volatile organic solvents and solid-phase adsorbents in an external loop extraction configuration. Hexane and pentane are shown to be toxic when added directly to the culture; however, growth of roots is not inhibited when cultures are exposed to media saturated with these hydrocarbons. Solid-phase neutral adsorbents, XAD-7 and XAD-16, display higher capacity and better solavetivone partitioning capability than the hydrocarbons; however, their selectivity for the sesquiterpene solavetivone is poor in comparison with hexane. In both cases, the integration of product recovery through extraction resulted in a doubling of product formation by alleviating feedback repression. Implications of these results to the recovery of secondary metabolites from plant root cultures are discussed. (C) 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.