Hairy Root Cultures of Eurycoma longifolia and Production of Anti-inflammatory 9-Methoxycanthin-6-one

The content of bioactive alkaloid 9-methoxycanthin-6-one in the roots of Eurycoma longifolia is rather small. In the current study, a high yield of 9-methoxycanthin-6-one was obtained from transgenic hairy roots (1.139 +/- 0.20% dry weight, DW) compared to wild roots (0.164 +/- 0.25% DW) of E. longifolia. Three liquid basal media supplemented with 3% sucrose were tested for the growth and accumulation of 9-methoxycanthin-6-one. The fastest growth was obtained in the Shenck and Hildebrandt (SH) medium while the highest 9-methoxycanthin-6-one content was observed in McCown's woody plant (WP) medium. In this study, compared to controls, the production of 9-methoxycanthin-6-one was increased by the maximum of 2.6 and 4.0 times after the addition of jasmonic acid and yeast extract, respectively, into hairy root cultures. In addition, pro -inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and TNF-alpha were significantly inhibited by 9-methoxycanthin-6-one in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated murine RAW264.7 cells, peritoneal macrophages and human THP-I macrophages. These results suggest that the elicited hairy root culture of E. longifolia is an alternative system for the production of an abundant source of anti-inflammatory 9-methoxycanthin-6-one.