Jordan Journal of Agricultural Sciences, Volume 6, No.2, 2010 -208- Colchicine Production from Colchicum and the Role of in vitro Cultures: A Review Rida A. Shibli 1* , Nidal Q. Daradkah 2 , Ibrahim M. Makhadmeh 3 and Savinaz H. Baghdadi 3 ABSTRACT In vitro production of naturally-occurring medicinally-important secondary metabolites from plants using callus or cell suspension culture has become an industrially promising project. In vitro production of secondary metabolites has many advantages: i) year-round availability of plant material for the production of functional phytomolecules; ii) better avenues for processing and isolation; iii) the possibility of accentuation of chemical reactions leading to other useful secondary metabolites under in vitro conditions; and iv) elimination of potential political and geographical boundaries against crop production. (-)-Colchicine is one of the most important and well-studied natural compounds. It occurs mainly in plant species belonging to the genus Colchicum. (-)- Colchicine is still in use today as a pharmaceutical agent and as a laboratory tool. Because of the difficulties in seed germination, young corms are used in the propagation of different Colchicum species. (-)-Colchicine was produced via tissue culture from calluses and cell suspensions of different Colchicum and Gloriosa species. Keywords: Colchicine, In vitro cultures, Callus, Cell suspension. INTRODUCTION The genus Colchicum belongs to the family Colchicaceae; a family of mainly perennial geophytes, although some vines and herbs are also included (Nordenstam, 1998). It is a taxonomically difficult genus. Both leaves and flowers are necessary for species identification (Feinbrun-Dothan, 1986). Plants of the genus Colchicum have been known for more than 2000 years for their marked beneficial and poisonous effects (Brickell, 1984). Colchicum is native to Europe but had been introduced to Canada and USA, where it is grown in gardens and lives as a wild escapee in meadows and woodlands (Wendelbo and Staurt, 1985; Snyder, 1998). Species belonging to the genus Colchicum are perennial herbs, with a corm or rarely with a creeping stolon. Corm is ovoid, enclosed by brown tunics, convex on one side, flattened and somewhat prolonged downwards on the other, replaced every year by a renewal corm which develops at the side of the previous year's corm at the base of the flowering shoot. Corm tunics, membranous, papery or coriaceous, often extended into a persistent tubular pseudostem, occasionally with horizontal rhizomatous outgrowths. Leaves 2-9 are basal, linear, lorate, lanceolate or elliptic-ovate, smooth, semi-terete to ribbed or plicate, synanthous or hysteranthous, developing with or after flowering (occasionally developing as flowers 1)Department of Horticulture and Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan. 2) National Center for Agriculture Research and Extension (NCARE), Baqa, Jordan. 3)Department of Plant Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan. *E-mail: shibli@just.edu.jo Received on 1/12/2008 and Accepted for Publication on 3/11/2009. © 2010 DAR Publishers/University of Jordan. All Rights Reserved.