Elicitation and scale-up of Bacopa saponin production by plant cell suspension culture in stirred tank bioreactor.

Cell suspension (CS) culture of Bacopa monnieri produces potential anti-Alzheimer's drug bacoside A. Various elicitors at different concentrations (salicylic acid, methyl jasmonate, Yeast extract, copper sulphate and sodium chloride) were added in cell suspension culture of B. monnieri on day 5. Salicylic acid, methyl jasmonate and copper sulphate showed the highest increase in bacoside A content which was 3-5 folds higher than the control. The effect of a combination of these three elicitors was studied on the bacoside yield using Response Surface Methodology. The cultivation of B. monnieri cell suspension culture was carried out using optimized elicitor combination in a stirred tank bioreactor. This led to 2.62-fold improvement in bacoside A yield (123.63 ± 5.14 mg/L) as compared to control batch bioreactor culture (47.25 mg/L) in 10 days of cultivation period. This study not only shows the role of elicitors for enhancement of bacoside A production but also shows the synergistic effect of elicitors on Bacopa monnieri CS culture.