Strategies for the improvement of salidroside production in cell suspension cultures of Rhodiola sachalinensis

Strategies of elicitation and precursor feeding were applied to improve salidroside production in cell suspension cultures of Rhodiola sachalinensis. Of the seven elicitors examined, that extracted from Aspergillus niger was the most effective, increasing the salidroside content by five-fold when added on the day of inoculation 40 mg carbohydrate is medium. Three possible precursors for salidroside synthesis, l-phenylalanine, l-tyrosol and l-tyrosine were added to the cultures. A high content of salidroside (1.440%) was attained with an initial l-tyrosol concentration of 0.5 mm in the medium. Combined application of the two strategies resulted in a significantly high salidroside content of 1.734%, corresponding to a salidroside yield of 200 mg/l. Received: 5 November 1996 / Revision received: 17 February 1997 / Accepted 11 April 1997