Production of Limonoids with Insect Antifeedant Activity in a Two-Stage Bioreactor Process with Cell Suspension Culture of Azadirachta indica

Neem tree (Azadirachta indica) cell suspension culture is an alternative for the production of limonoids for insect control that overcomes limitations related to the supply of neem seeds. To establish conditions for cell growth and azadiracthin-related limonoid production, the effect of different sucrose concentrations, nitrate and phosphate in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium, and the addition of one precursor and three elicitors was evaluated in shake flasks. The process was scaled up to a 3-l stirred tank bioreactor in one- and two-stage batch cultivation. In shake flasks, more than fivefold increase in the production of limonoids with the modified MS medium was observed (increase from 0.77 to 4.52 mg limonoids/g dry cell weight, DCW), while an increase of more than fourfold was achieved by adding the elicitors chitosan, salicylic acid, and jasmonic acid together (increase from 1.03 to 4.32 mg limonoids/g DCW). In the bioreactor, the volumetric production of limonoids was increased more than threefold with a two-stage culture in day 18 (13.82 mg limonoids/l in control single-stage process and 41.44 mg/l in two-stage process). The cultivation and operating mode of the bioreactor reported in this study may be adapted and used in optimization and process plant development for production of insect antifeedant limonoids with A. indica cell suspension cultures.