Improving large-scale biomass and plumbagin production of Drosera communis A.St.-Hil. by temporary immersion system

Abstract

Drosera communis A.St.-Hil. is a carnivorous plant with ornamental and medicinal values. Productions of biomass and plumbagin, a main bioactive compound in a semi-solid system (SSS), continuous immersion system (CIS) and temporary immersion system (TIS) were compared. After pre-induction, leaves were cultured for 8 weeks, TIS promoted better growth and development compared to SSS and CIS. The highest biomass per clump at 3.40 g fresh weight (FW) and 0.36 g dry weight (DW) was obtained from TIS at about 3 and 1.8 times higher than SSS and CIS, respectively. The highest shoot number per clump (30.4 shoots) was also derived from TIS at around 2.6 and 1.6 times higher than SSS and CIS, respectively. Moreover, growth performances per replication of TIS were significantly higher than SSS and CIS. Over 600 shoots were obtained from one TIS, while only around 236 and 379 shoots were obtained from SSS and CIS, respectively. Likewise, maximal biomass per replication (68.0 g FW and 7.1 g DW) obtained from TIS was two or three times greater than CIS and SSS, respectively. For plumbagin production, the highest plumbagin content was gained from CIS (4.91 μg/g DW) followed by SSS (4.22 μg/g DW) and TIS (2.44 μg/g DW). Although TIS provided the lowest plumbagin content, the highest plumbagin yield per replication (17.31 μg/replication) was gained from TIS, which was significantly higher than SSS and CIS. Results suggested that TIS was a suitable method for large-scale production of biomass and plumbagin of D. communis.