Rosmarinic acid production in hairy root cultures of Salvia nemorosa L. (Lamiaceae)

Rosmarinic acid (RA) is a widely known and interesting medicinal phenolic acid produced in plant, cell, tissue, and organ in vitro cultures. In this study, hairy roots were induced using vari-ous strains of Agrobacterium rhizogenes (ATCC15834, A4, R1000, and GM1534). Furthermore, the effect of sucrose, IBA anddifferent in vitro basal medium (MS, 1/2 MS) on the hairy root generation and RA production was studied. ATCC15834 strain showed the maximum transformation effi-ciency (76%). Visible growth of the roots was observed in liquid MS medium containing 0.1 mg/L IBA. Based on a time-course experiment, the highest biomass production and RA content were ob-served after 2 weeks. The highest biomass (9.28 g/L DW) and RA content (15.9 mg/g DW) from the hairy root culturs were obtained in 1/2 MS medium supplemented with 1% and 3% sucrose, re-spectively. The results demonstrated high possible potential of S. nemorosa hairy root cultures on RA production.