Enhancing the accumulation of scopolamine and atropine in Hyoscyamus niger L. callus by LED light and glycine-a cheap method.

Background: The production of tropane alkaloids such as atropine and scopolamine by chemical methods is costly. This study aimed to find a more efficient method for producing tropane alkaloids by investigating different LED light qualities and glycine treatment using leaf callus cultures of Hyoscyamus niger L. in vitro.

Results: In this study, after producing healthy plantlets, callus induction was done in the B5 medium with 2-4-D (2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) at 2 mg L with BA (6-benzyl adenine) at a concentration of 1 mg L. The use of LED light and glycine treatments started from the callus stage, in such a way that the callus produced was placed in culture media containing different concentrations of glycine (0, 2, 4 and 8 mg L). They were transferred to light boxes, and light treatments were applied at 4 levels (darkness (D), white LED light (WLED), blue LED light (BLED), and red LED light (RLED)). The results demonstrate that, glycine had a significant impact on the accumulation of total carbohydrates and total amino acids, quercetin, total phenols and total flavonoids in H. niger L. callus under LED light qualities. The highest atropine was obtained under Blue LED (BLED) conditions with the glycine at mg L, while the highest scopolamine was observed under BLED conditions with glycine at 4 mg L. Also, the highest gallic acid levels (4.18 mg g) were observed in callus grown under BLED and RED LED (RLED) light conditions with glycine at 8 mg L.

Conclusion: In the present study, we have developed an efficient protocol for the production of tropane alkaloids by investigating different LED light colors and glycine treatments exploiting in vitro callus cultures of H.niger. These findings could have potential applications in the pharmaceutical and food industries for efficiently producing high-valued alkaloids from the plants.