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 mar- ket 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 differ- ent in vitro culture phases significantly affected the production of alkamides or caffeic acid derivatives giv- ing the possibility to direct the in vitro culture protocol depending on active principle market demand.