Abstract
Andrographolides, the diterpene lactones, are major bioactive phytochemicals which could be found in different parts of the medicinal herb Andrographis paniculata. A number of such compounds namely andrographolide (AG), neoandrographolide (NAG), and 14-deoxy-11,12-didehydroandrographolide (DDAG) have already attracted a great deal of attention due to their potential therapeutic effects in hard-to-treat diseases such as cancers and HIV. Recently, they have also been considered as substrates for the discovery of novel pharmaceutical compounds. Nevertheless, there is still a huge gap in knowledge on the genetic pattern of the biosynthesis of these bioactive compounds. Hence, the present study aimed to investigate the genetic mechanisms controlling the biosynthesis of these phytochemicals using a diallel analysis. The high performance liquid chromatography analysis of the three andrographolides in 210 F1 progenies confirmed that the biosynthesis of these andrographolides was considerably increased via intraspecific hybridization. The results revealed high, moderate and low heterosis for DDAG, AG and NAG, respectively. Furthermore, the preponderance of non-additive gene actions was affirmed in the enhancement of the three andrographolides contents. The consequence of this type of gene action was the occurrence of high broad-sense and low narrow-sense heritabilities for the above mentioned andrographolides. The prevalence of non-additive gene action suggests the suitability of heterosis breeding and hybrid seed production as a preferred option to produce new plant varieties with higher andrographolide contents using the wild accessions of A. paniculata. Moreover, from an evolutionary point of view, the occurrence of population bottlenecks in the Malaysian accessions of A. paniculata was unveiled by observing a low level of additive genetic variance (VA) for all the andrographolides.
Highlights
Andrographis paniculata is a well-known traditional medicinal plant species with a bright economic horizon belonging to the Acanthaceae family [1]
The decreased retention times of the three components led to saving chemicals and time as well as reducing the depreciation of High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) instrument
The analysis of variance (ANOVA) results revealed that the technique was accurate enough as no significant difference was observed among replicates except for andrographolide percentage (AGP), while the relatively low coefficient of variation (C.V) of the traits confirmed the reliability of the method (Table 3)
Summary
Andrographis paniculata (hereafter AP) is a well-known traditional medicinal plant species with a bright economic horizon belonging to the Acanthaceae family [1]. Many therapeutic properties of AP and its bioactive principles have been reviewed extensively [1] Among these constituents, three principle diterpenoid-based compounds including andrographolide (AG) [4,5], neoandrographolide (NAG) [6] and 14deoxy-11,12-didehydroandrographolide (DDAG) [7], shown as Figure 1A–F, have received more attention because of their potential therapeutic effects in hard-to-treat diseases such as cancer [8], HIV [9], hepatitis [10] and diabetes [11]. Three principle diterpenoid-based compounds including andrographolide (AG) [4,5], neoandrographolide (NAG) [6] and 14deoxy-11,12-didehydroandrographolide (DDAG) [7], shown as Figure 1A–F, have received more attention because of their potential therapeutic effects in hard-to-treat diseases such as cancer [8], HIV [9], hepatitis [10] and diabetes [11] This in turn has led to a rising price and market demand for AP-derived products. The latest pricing by SigmaAldrich Corporation (USA) in 2013 for the 100 and 500 mg packages of andrographolide 98% is US$36.20 and US$135.00, respectively
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