Influence of macro elements and nitrogen source on adventitious root growth and withanolide-A production in Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal

Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal. (Indian ginseng) is an important medicinal plant which yields pharmaceutically active compounds, namely withanolides. This study deals with the optimisation of the adventitious root suspension culture of W. somnifera for the production of biomass and withanolide-A. We investigated the effects of macro elements (NH(4)NO(3), KNO(3), CaCl(2), MgSO(4) and KH(2)PO(4)) and nitrogen source [[Formula: see text]] of Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium on the accumulation of biomass and withanolide-A content. The highest accumulation of fresh and dry biomass (127.52 and 12.45?g?L(-1)) was recorded in the medium with 0.5× concentration of NH(4)NO(3) and the highest production of withanolide-A was recorded in the medium with 2.0× KNO(3) (14.00?mg?g(-1) DW). The adventitious root growth was greater when the [Formula: see text] concentration was higher than that of [Formula: see text] and the withanolide-A production was highest in the absence of [Formula: see text]. Maximum biomass growth was achieved at [Formula: see text] ratio of 14.38?:?37.60, while withanolide-A production was greatest (11.76?mg?g(-1) DW) when the [Formula: see text] ratio was 0.00?:?18.80?mM. The results of this study are useful for scale-up processes.