The large-scale isolation of deoxypodophyllotoxin from rhizomes of Anthriscus sylvestris followed by its bioconversion into 5-methoxypodophyllotoxin beta-D-glucoside by cell cultures of Linum flavum

Dried rhizomes of Anthriscus sylvestris contained 0.39% deoxypodophyllotoxin (1). An isolation procedure with an extraction efficiency of 51.2% was developed for this commercially unavailable lignan. The isolated 1 was subsequently complexed with dimethyl-P-cyclodextrin and fed to cell suspension cultures of Linum flavum by which it was bioconverted into 5-methoxypodophyllotoxin-beta-D-glucoside (2). After 7 days the cells contained 4.41% of this product on a dry-weight basis. An isolation procedure for compound 2 was developed, with an extraction efficiency of 83.4%.