• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.250-258
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• 2000

Hairy root cultures of Rheum undulatum L. induced by a co-culture with Agrobacterium rhizogenes ATCC15834 were established and the production of tannin in hairy roots was investigated. The growth of hairy roots was maximized in WPM liquid medium supplemented with 2 mg/L IAA, and 3% sucrose (pH 5.7). The highest yields of tannin were obtained from WPM medium containing 0.5 mg/L ABA, and 5% sucrose (pH 5.5). The growth and tannin production in hairy root cultures were influenced by the addition of elicitors to the medium. The addition of 50 mg/L chitosan enhanced the production of tannin with about 1.7 fold.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.8-14
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• 2001

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of extracts from cultured hairy roots of R. undulatum on human kidney epithelial cells. The cytotoxicity was measured by colorimetric assay using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT), neutral red (NR) and sulforhodamine protein B (SRB) with human kidney epithelial cell lines A498. MTT, NR and SRB quantities decreased propotionally in cultured A498 cells treated with the water or chloroform extracts of cultured hairy roots at increasing concentrations. These results suggest that extracts of cultured hairy roots are cytotoxic on human epithelial cells. The cytotoxicity of chloroform fraction was stronger than that of water fraction. The values of $MTT_{50},\;NR_{50}\;SRB_{50}$ of the extracts of chloroform fraction and those of water fraction were measured to be $289.3{\mu}g/ml,\;302.7{\mu}g/ml,\;433.8{\mu}g/ml\;and\;475.8{\mu}g/ml,\;428.3{\mu}g/ml,\;549.5{\mu}g/ml$, in A498 cell line.