Mass Production of Panax ginseng C.A. Mey. Root Cultures in Indonesia

Panax ginseng C.A. Mey. is one of the most well-known plants in traditional medicine that contains bioactive compounds called ginsenosides. It is widely used as raw material in many pharmaceutical industries in Indonesia. However, to supply for this purpose, they still rely on imports. PT. Kalbe Farma (through its subsidiary, PT. Bintang Toedjoe), University of Surabaya (Ubaya), and Hanbang-Bio Laboratory (holding company of Kyung Hee University) established the Kalbe Ubaya Hanbang-Bio Laboratory (KUH Lab), a collaboration initiated to achieve the independence of raw materials. This laboratory is devoted to developing the plant tissue culture protocol for the mass production of P. ginseng root cultures. This paper is the first report of in vitro P. ginseng culture in Indonesia. The initial stage of the mass production focused on optimizing the culture conditions: inoculum weight (100 g, 150 g, 200 g), medium volume (12 L, 13 L, 14 L), medium formulation (“A”, “B”), and incubation temperature (15 °C to 20 °C and 21°C to 25 °C). Based on the biomass yield and ginsenosides content, it was concluded that the optimum growth condition was 150 g of the initial inoculum grown in 13 L of media using formulation B and incubation at 21°C to 25 °C. In the long-term, KUH Lab aims to produce P. ginseng on an industrial scale to sufficiently supply the demands for P. ginseng in the country. Furthermore, this laboratory also intends to make standardized Indonesian herbal materials by using plant tissue culture

The Effect of Elisitor on Growth and Ginsenoside Level in Hairy Root Culture of Panax ginseng Cultivated in Shake Flasks

In recent years, plants have become an important part of traditional medicine. Although the medicinal potential of the plant looks very promising, there are great difficulties that inhibit products for the production of herbs on a large scale. Panax ginseng C.A. Mey. is a plant often used in traditional medicine in various countries because ginseng can cure various diseases in humans. The main bioactive component in ginseng is the triterpene saponin compound, namely ginsenosides. Ginseng needs to be cultivated at least 4 yr before the root can be harvested. In addition, a special environment is needed for ginseng to develop properly. One way to obtain ginsenosides is to use root hair culture. However, until now it has been reported that the accumulation of ginsensoside in root hair cultures is still low. Elicitation effective method to increase the production of secondary metabolites in vitro culture. The aim of this research was to observe the effect of elicitor in the form of yeast extract and coconut water to the media on the growth and levels of ginsenoside in flask scale Panax ginseng root hair culture. From the data obtained, it can be concluded that the addition of yeast extract from the start with a concentration of 20 mg L–1 cannot increase the levels of ginsenoside in the hairy root culture of P. ginseng. The addition of coconut water from the beginning with a volume of 10 mL increases the biomass but cannot increase the ginsenoside levels in the hair culture of P. ginseng