Echinacea angustifolia , micropropagazione e colture cellulari per la produzione di metaboliti secondari

Plant in vitro cultures can be considered a biotechnological tool for the production and the market of medicinal species. Micropropagation allows speedy clonal propagation of plants selected for their characteristic active principles. In this work a protocol for the in vitro propagation of Echinacea angustifolia D.C. was established starting from flower stalks of adult plants. This method permitted to obtain in vitro plant tissue extracts with a considerable amount of caffeic acid derivatives (chlorogenic, caftaric, cichoric acids and echinacoside) and alkamides (dodeca- 2E,4E,8Z,10E-tetraenoic acid isobuthylamide) typical of this species. The results highlighted how the different in vitro culture phases significantly affected the production of alkamides or caffeic acid derivatives giving the possibility to direct the in vitro culture protocol depending on active principle market demand.