In vitro plant regeneration and bioactive metabolite production of endangered medicinal plant Fritillaria cirrhosa

The bulb of Fritillaria cirrhosa D. Don is widely used for the anti-asthmatic, anti-tussive, and anti-cancer agents, etc., while the yield is limited by an endangered status, a long juvenile phase, and restricted growth habitat. Ancillary approaches to improve the bulb yield by micropropagation and bioactive metabolites production by bioreactor have not been established. Here is reported the plant regeneration, suspension cell culture, and bioactive metabolite production at different treatments. The embryogenic calli were successfully induced via the histomorphological identification. The highest proliferation times (4.11-fold) were observed with a select combination of hormones [NAA (0.2 mg/L) + 6-BA (1.0 mg/L) + GA₃ (1.0 mg/L)] and culture conditions (red light and 20 °C), the highest content of imperialine (0.13 mg/g) was observed under blue light, total phenolic (0.52 mg/g) under red light, polysaccharides (36.57 mg/g) and total flavonoids (2.67 mg/g) as well as antioxidant capacity under white light. The plantlets were regenerated within 125 d from the induced embryogenic calli to acclimation and transplantation of seedlings. For the suspension cell culture, a 6.30-, 1.78-, 1.37-, and 1.51-fold increase of proliferation times, imperialine, polysaccharides, and total phenolic contents was observed at 40 d, respectively. Based on the above observations, an effective and complete in vitro approach has been proposed to regenerate plants and produce bioactive metabolites in F. cirrhosa.