Production of cadiotonic glycosides in Digitalis purpurea using temporary immersion systems

Naivy Pérez-Alonso; Elio Jiménez; Dirk Wilken; André Gerth; Annett Jähn; Horst-Michael Nitzsche; Gerhard Kerns

Production of cadiotonic glycosides in Digitalis purpurea using temporary immersion systems

2005

Digitalis purpurea, is an example of cardiotonic drug. Digoxin and digitoxin are glycosides produced by this plant which are cardiac stimulants with a wide use in the treatment of heart problems. The objective of this investigation was to study the effect of temporary immersion on biomass production and the content of cardiotonic glycosides (digitoxin and digoxin), determined by Liquid Cromatography. Biomass production was favoured by increasing the frequency of immersions. The highest value of fresh weight (106.2 g) and lower porcentage of hyperhydricity (27 %) were obtained with immersions of 2 minutes every 4 hours. The content of digoxin was always lower than digitoxin. However, the concentration of digoxin increases with 6 and 8 immersions per day, while the accumulation of digitoxin was stable in all treatments. The aeration rates did not increase the biomasss and the concentration of digoxine was nule, nevertheless the concentration of digitoxine increased up to 111μg g.DW. The effect of temporary immersion on glycosides accumulation in shoots of Digitalis purpurea presented in this paper has not been described in the literature till now.temporary immersionKeywords: digitoxin, digoxin, secondary metabolites,

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