Increased taxane accumulation in callus cultures of Taxus cuspidata and Taxus x media by some elicitors and precursors

In Taxus cuspidata callus, vanadyl sulfate (10 mg l(-1)) induced a high (146 mu g g(-1) dry wt) production of 10-deacetylbaccatin III in comparison to 7 mu g g(-1) dry wt of the control. The content of paclitaxel in this species increased from 16 mu g g(-1) to 74 mu g g(-1) dry wt when 20 mg phenylalanine l(-)1 was used. In T. media, p-aminobenzoic acid induced the highest content of 10-deacetylbaccatin III (481 mu g g(-1) dry wt) versus 181 mu g g(-1) in the control. Paclitaxel increased from 89 to 139 mu g g(-1) dry wt after adding chitosan (20 mg l(-1)) to the cultures.