Phycocyanin,a new elicitor for capsaicin and anthocyanin accumulation in plant cell cultures

  Elicitors of both fungal and bacterial origin that is, polysaccharides, proteins and fatty acids, are widely used for enhancement of secondary metabolites in plant cell cultures. In the present study, phycocyanin – a natural blue pigment that is the major light-harvesting biliprotein in the blue-green alga Spirulina platensis– was used as an elicitor to enhance the accumulation of capsaicin and anthocyanin in Capsicum frutescens and Daucus carota cell cultures respectively. Phycocyanin at 0.3, 0.6 and 1.2 mg% in capsicum cell cultures elicited a more than two-fold increase in capsaicin content with maximum productivity of 192 μg/g fresh weight. Similarly in Daucus carota cell cultures a two-fold increase in anthocyanin content was obtained at 0.3 mg% with a maximum productivity of 24.8 mg% on a dry-weight basis. In both the systems, phycocyanin showed an early elicitation of secondary metabolites. Received: 15 December 1995 / Received last revision: 15 July 1996 / Accepted: 18 July 1996