Production of tropane alkaloids by transformed root cultures of Atropa belladonna in stirred bioreactors with a stainless steel net

A scale up of transformed root cultures of Atropa belladonna from a 300-ml flask to a 30-1 tank was accomplished without any reduction in alkaloid productivity. Cutting treatment of seed cultures showed no distinct effect on root growth, morphology, and alkaloid content in conical flasks during 1 month of culture. Randomly cut roots thus grown were further cultivated in 3-1 and 30-1 modified stirred bioreactors for a scale-up culture. After 1 month of culture, 1490 mg of tropane alkaloids was produced by a 30-1 culture of A. belladonna transformed roots. These roots contained the same level of atropine (5.4 mg/g dw) as the roots of this plant grown in the field for 12 months and still contained a considerable amount of other alkaloids including 1.6 mg/g dw of 6-beta-hydroxyhyoscyamine, 0.9 mg/g dw of scopolamine, and 2.0 mg/g dw of lit-torine.