Colchicine Production from Colchicum and the Role of in vitro Cultures: A Review

In vitro production of naturally-occurring medicinally-important secondary metabolites from plants using callus or cell suspension culture has become an industrially promising project. in vitro production of secondary metabolites has many advantages: i) year-round availability of plant material for the production of functional phytomolecules; ii) better avenues for processing and isolation; iii) the possibility of accentuation of chemical reactions leading to other useful secondary metabolites under in vitro conditions; and iv) elimination of potential political and geographical boundaries against crop production. (-)-colchicine is one of the most important and well-studied natural compounds. it occurs mainly in plant species belonging to the genus colchicum. (-)- colchicine is still in use today as a pharmaceutical agent and as a laboratory tool. because of the difficulties in seed germination, young corms are used in the propagation of different colchicum species. (-)-colchicine was produced via tissue culture from calluses and cell suspensions of different colchicum and gloriosa species