Continuous cell culture and product recovery from wild Vaccinium pahalae germplasm

The productivity of Vaccinium pahalae (ohelo) cell cultures as a resource for natural food colorants and bioactive phytochemicals was examined. Ohelo callus and suspension cultures, established from leaf explants, produced vivid anthocyanin pigments, identified as cyanidin-3-galactoside, cyanidin-3-arabinoside, and peonidin-3-galactoside. Ohelo plant foliage produced a comparable anthocyanin composition. Both pigment yield and cell biomass continued to increase over a 30 d cell-culture cycle. Pigment yield was enhanced by increasing sucrose concentration in the liquid suspension medium (up to 70 g.L-1) and by manipulating the initial inoculum density. A hexane extract from the pigmented ohelo cells demonstrated a strong quinone reductase-inducing activity in vitro, indicating that compounds effective in inhibiting the initiation stages of chemically-induced carcinogenesis were also accumulated in the cell cultures.