Effects of Processing Conditions on Natural Toxins Formation in Plant Cell and Tissue

<P>
Plant secondary metabolites are important sources of many food ingredients and disease-preventive phytochemicals. Plant cell and tissue culture offers an alternative way for controlled production of these products. The goal of this research was to determine the effect of tissue culture process on natural toxin formation and to determine whether commonly used yield improvement processes will result in higher levels of toxin. Tomato cell culture was chosen as a model system. Tomato cell culture has potential commercial applications for the production of lycopene and tomato flavor. In the mean time, tomato belongs to the family of Solanaceae known to produce toxic glycoalkaloids. The major glycoalkaloid in tomato, a-tomatine, is embryotoxic and has been shown to cause rapid death of mice. </p>
<P>
The objectives of the study were to initiate cell cultures of different tomato cultivars, to determine the level of a-tomatine in these cultures, and determine the effect of elicitation on a-tomatine production, as well as to develop analytical methods for analyzing glycoalkaloids in potato cell cultures (Solanum tuberosum cv.Yukon Gold) and determine the level of glycoalkaloids in these cultures.</p>
<P>
The results of this study indicated that tomato (or potato) cell cultures lacking morphological differentiation may not contain the natural toxin,a-tomatine (or chaconine), and elicitation may not activate the production of these glycoalkaloids in cell cultures.</p>