Swertia chirata Buch.-Ham. ex Wall. (Gentianaceae), an endangered Himalayan medicinal plant: comparative study of the secondary compound patterns in market drug. in vitro-cultivated, and micropropagated field qrown samples

Samples of the Himalayan medicinal plant Swertia chirata obtained from a local market in Nepal, from a micropropagated field cultivated clone, and from two in vitro-clones were compared by means of HPLC. The substance patterns of methanolic and dichloromethane extracts of the in vivo grown materials showed good conformity while in the samples from tissue culture major compounds were missing. Our findings confirm that the secondary metabolism of in vitro-cultivated plants normally differs from that of plants in their natural environment. Furthermore, the compound pattern of plants produced through micropropagation and subsequently cultivated in the field is comparable to that of plants collected from the wild. As an alternative to the uncontrolled depletion of the natural resources a sustainable use of Swertia chirata could hence be achieved by controlled field culture of micropropagated plants.