چكيده لاتين :
Cell cultures of Varthemia persica, Peganum harmala and Pycnocycla spinosa
have been studied to evaluate their abilities to bioconvert exogenous hydroquinone.
Arbutin is an important substance that has several pharmaceutical applications;
therefore, we have established V. persica and P. spinosa cultures which seem to be
able to metabolize hydroquinone. Callus cultures of V. persica were established from
seedlings, and healthy suspensions were grown using Murashige and Skoog medium
supplemented with 2,4-D and kinetin. Exogenous hydroquinone was fed to cell
suspension cultures and biotransformation reactions were detected over 24 h of
incubation. The cultures then extracted with methanol and extracts subjected to TLC
and HPLC analysis. The V. persica and P. spinosa cultured cells in this study seem
to exhibit an ability in the glucosylation of hydroquinone to arbutin. No conversion
was observed with P. harmala cell suspension cultures. The ability of cultured plant
cells for biotransformation of substrates appears to be depended on the culture strains.
