Background: Urginea maritima (L.f.) Baker (Hyacinthaceae) is a
perennial bulbous medicinal plant that is currently at risk of extinction. Squill
(white sea onion) is an analogous cardiotonic to digitalis. The purpose of the
current work was to assess the optimal growth conditions for Urginea
cells to synthesize the cardiac glycoside proscillaridin A by involving
illumination, carbon source, methyl jasmonate (MJ), and culture system.
Results: When cells were cultured for 28 days at 21 2 C in the
dark on Murashige and Skoog (MS) media containing 1 mg/L 2, 4-D and 0.5 mg/L Kin
and 30 g/L sucrose, the cell proliferation, and proscillaridin A synthesis were
effectively controlled. At low concentrations, MJ stimulated the synthesis of
proscillaridin A (PsA). High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis of
suspension extracts demonstrated that the callus maintained in MS media enriched
with 1 mg/L 2, 4-D and 0.5 mg/L Kin yielded a greater formation of Proscillaridin
A (141.31 mg/g DW) than untreated plants. Conclusions: The results
indicate that in vitro cultures of U. maritima may be an
excellent source of proscillaridin A. Moreover, it is one of the most
important cardiac glycoside, which has been found to exhibit anticancer
activities. Suspension cultures of Urginea cells could be as highly
productive as a callus culture.