Yield enhancement strategies for artemisinin production by suspension cultures of Artemisia annua

Artemisinin, isolated from the shrub-Artemisia annua, is a sesquiterpene lactone used to treat multi-drug resistant strains of falciparum malaria. It is also effective against a wide variety of cancers such as leukemia and colon cancer. To counter the present low content in leaves and uneconomical chemical synthesis, alternate ways to produce artemisinin have been sought. But this compound remains elusive in cell cultures of A. annua despite the extensive studies undertaken. This work reports the first successful approach for production of artemisinin by cell cultures of Indian variety of A. annua. In the present study, an integrated yield enhancement strategy, developed by addition of selected precursor (mevalonic acid lactone) and elicitor (methyl jasmonate) at optimized concentrations, resulted in 15.2 g/l biomass and 110.2 mg/l artemisinin, which was 5.93 times higher in productivity in comparison to control cultures.