Production of Arbutin by Biotransformation of Hydroquinone Using Peganum harmala, Varthemia persica and Pycnocycla spinosa Cell Suspension Cultures

Cell cultures of varthemia persica, peganum harmala and pycnocycla spinosahave been studied to evaluate their abilities to bioconvert exogenous hydroquinone.arbutin is an important substance that has several pharmaceutical applications;therefore, we have established v. persica and p. spinosa cultures which seem to beable to metabolize hydroquinone. callus cultures of v. persica were established fromseedlings, and healthy suspensions were grown using murashige and skoog mediumsupplemented with 2,4-d and kinetin. exogenous hydroquinone was fed to cellsuspension cultures and biotransformation reactions were detected over 24 h ofincubation. the cultures then extracted with methanol and extracts subjected to tlcand hplc analysis. the v. persica and p. spinosa cultured cells in this study seemto exhibit an ability in the glucosylation of hydroquinone to arbutin. no conversionwas observed with p. harmala cell suspension cultures. the ability of cultured plantcells for biotransformation of substrates appears to be depended on the culture strains.