Vol. 7, Issue 3 (2018)

Author(s):
Rajesh Lomror, BL Yadav and BL Jat

Abstract:
Asparagus racemosus is an indigenous medicinal plant of the family Liliaceae; is important for its saponin content and antioxidant activity. It was found that a callus culture derived from the root explants produces more alkaloids compared to nodal callus cultures and maximum accumulation was found to be 10.38 ± 0.14 mg/g after 60 days of inoculation. Total alkaloids from the nodal calli were found to be 7.69 ± 0.136 mg/g of callus. Recent developments in transgenic research have opened up the possibility of the metabolic engineering of biosynthetic pathways to produce these high value secondary metabolites. The high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) chromatogram of the in vitro culture and the natural plant root extract were compared and it was found that all the major peaks were present in the in vitro extract and the overall alkaloids profile was similar to the natural root extract. The present review is a pragmatic approach to accrue the findings on this very important herb.