Gold nanoparticle-mediated elicitation enhances andrographolide biosynthesis via auxin signalling in optimized hairy root cultures of Andrographis paniculata.
Rajalakshmi S, Megha D, Vignesh S, Appunu C, Manickavasagam M
Medicinal Plants
Andrographis is the bitter herb behind some of the most widely sold immune supplements in health food stores, and this technique could make it far cheaper and more consistently potent than anything currently grown in a field.
Scientists coaxed roots of a medicinal plant called king of bitters to grow in lab dishes, then treated them with tiny gold particles smaller than a virus. Those gold particles acted like a stress signal that tricked the roots into ramping up production of their key healing compound almost ninefold. This could one day mean more affordable, reliably potent herbal medicines without needing acres of farmland.
Key Findings
Treatment with gold nanoparticles at 40 mg/L for 48 hours increased andrographolide production 8.8-fold, reaching 372.17 mg per gram of dry weight.
Hairy root cultures achieved a transformation efficiency of 79.9% and peak biomass on day 40, providing a reproducible lab-based production platform.
Gold nanoparticle elicitation activated auxin-signaling genes ARF1 (9.2-fold) and ARF3 (6.09-fold), revealing the hormonal pathway driving the yield boost.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Researchers grew medicinal plant roots in a lab and used tiny gold particles to dramatically boost production of andrographolide — a compound used in traditional medicine to fight infections and inflammation — achieving nearly 9 times more of it than normal.
Abstract Preview
Andrographis paniculata, a medicinal plant valued for its diterpenoid andrographolide, is limited by low yields obtained through conventional cultivation and extraction methods. Developing efficien...
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Andrographis is a genus of flowering plants in the family Acanthaceae. They may be generally known as the false waterwillows, and several are called periyanagai.