Article Title
Transgenic Artemisia dubia WALL; Showed Altered Phytochemistry and Pharmacology
Abstract
In order to test the effect of trans-genes (rol ABC) on possible high production of biologically important phytochemicals and enhanced pharmacological activities, three transgenic lines (1, 2 and 3) of Artemisia dubia WALL (transformed with Agrobacterium tumefacienes harboring rol ABC genes) were subjected to phytochemical analysis and pharmacological studies. Earlier this plant was selected for transformation experiments due to its high pharmaceutical value. A great variation in phytochemistry and the pharmacological activities was observed not only between the transgenic and non-transgenic control plants but also among the transgenic lines itself. Comparative chemical profile obtained via HPLC, TLC and Spectrophotometer showed high degree of variations in the quantity of phytochemicals, like increased production of total flavonoids (71.1% in transgenic line 2) and total phenolics (110.8% in transgenic line 1), increase in caffeic acid and catechin and a decrease in gallic acid in the extracts of transformed plants compared to the untransformed controlled plants. In case of pharmacological activities moderate to high level increase in antimicrobial (antibacterial and antifungal) activities, cytotoxicity (14.1%), antitumor (29%) and antioxidant activities (23.9%) was observed (in transgenic line 2). Although all the three transgenic lines under study had shown an increase, however, overall assessment of pharmacological activities was such that transgenic line 2>1>3>control.
