The evaluation of artemisinin production in experimental plant culture and callus ofArtemisia aucheri Boiss. against light stimulus and UV radation (in vitro)

Artemisinin is an important medicine for Malaria which has very difficult and expensive chemical synthesis process. Artemisia aucheri Boiss. is very abundant in Iran which has inactive artemisinin biosynthesis genes. The purpose of the current study is to activate artemisinin biosynthesis genes using various light stimulus. Murashing and Skoog (MS) solid medium was used for tissue culture without plant growth regulators. Plants seedling and callus were placed under sterile condition at 25±ºC and exposed to different light treatment and UV irradiation. The control group was located under light condition similar to the sunlight. Plant callus was subculture per 3 weeks for 5 months. The thin layer chromatography (TLC) was used to determine of artemisinin in the dichloromethanolic extracts of plant or callus. The results were showed that the artemisinin produced in the 3000 lux treated seedling and callus that were exposed to UV-B 340nm irradiation. The production of artemisinin in Artemisia aucheri Boiss.is reported based on the qualitative evaluations (TLC). Conducting a bigger number and more accurate experiments are necessary in this field regarding quantitative measurements.