Essential oils from hairy root cultures and from fruits and roots of Pimpinella anisum

Hairy root cultures of Pimpinella anisum were established following inoculation of aseptically grown plantlets with an A(4) pRiA(4) 70 GUS strain of Agrobacterium rhizogenes. The essential oils from the hairy roots, maintained in four different media, and from the fruits and roots of the parent plant were analysed and their compositions compared by GC and GC-mass spectrometry. The major components of the essential oils from the hairy root cultures were trans-epoxypseudoisoeugenyl 2-methylbutyrate, geijerene, pregeijerene, zingiberene and beta-bisabolene, in varying amounts depending on the light or dark growth conditions and on the culture media tested. trans-Epoxypseudoisoeugenyl 2-methylbutyrate, beta-bisabolene and pregeijerene were the major components of the essential oil from the roots of the parent plant, whereas the main component of the fruit oil was trans-anethole. Geijerenes were not detected in the fruit oil. The essential oil yield of the transformed roots grown in one of the media was comparable with that obtained for the roots of the parent plant and, calculated on a dry weight basis, the oil yield of these hairy roots was comparable with that of the fruits. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.