Enhancement of eurycomanone biosynthesis in cell culture of longjack (Eurycoma longifolia) by elicitor treatment

In this study, the effect of elicitors such as yeast extract (YE), methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and salicylic acid (SA) on the accumulation of eurycomanone in Eurycoma longifolia cell cultures were investigated. Suspension cells of E. longifolia was cultured in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 30 g/L sucrose, 1.25 mg/L naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) and 1 mg/L kinetin at a shaking speed of 120 rpm. Elicitors were added in the culture at different concentrations and times to stimulate eurycomanone accumulation in the Eurycoma longifolia cells. Eurycomanone content was determined by HPLC with a C18 column, flow rate of 0.8 mL/min, run time of 17.5 min, and a detector wavelength of 254 nm. The stationary phase was silica gel and the mobile phase was acetonitrile: H2O. Non-elicited cells were used as the control. The study showed the effect of different elicitor concentrations, YE at 200 mg/L, MeJA at 20 μM and SA at 20 μM stimulated high production of eurycomanone. In which, treatment of 20 μM MeJA after 4 days of culture resulted in the highest accumulation of this compound (17.36 mg/g dry weight), approximately 10-fold higher than that of untreated cells (1.70 mg/g dry weight).