TIME-COURSE OF ACCUMULATION OF FREE EXTRACELLULAR AND INTRACELLULAR AMINO-ACIDS IN ACHILLEA-MILLEFOLIUM CELL-SUSPENSION CULTURES

A time-course study of free intra- and extracellular amino acids accumulation in cell suspension cultures of Achillea millefolium was performed by GC and GC-MS. The total amount of intracellular free amino acids diminished early in the lag phase and the first days of the exponential phase. Early in the stationary phase there was a great increase in the amount of intracellular free amino acids, which decreased afterwards in the late stationary phase. The amount of extracellular amino acids was rather small when compared to the amount of free intracellular amino acids and attained its maximum in the stationary phase. From the 17 amino acids identified during the growth cycle of the cell suspension cultures of A. millefolium, glutamic acid and glutamine were the two main free intracellular amino acids, while glutamic acid was the dominant amino acid detected extracellularly.