BIOTECHNOLOGY LETTERS Volume 14 No.lO (October 1992) pp.965-968 Received as revised 25th August STIMULATION OF SOLASODINE PRODUCTION BY COMBINING FUNGAL ELICITORS AND IMMOBILIZED CELL SUSPENSION CULTURES OF SOLANUM SURATTENSE BURM. N.P.Malpathak* and S.B.David Department of Botany, University of Poona, Pune 411 007, India. Summary Combining the use of fungal elicitors like Aspergillus and Fusarium with immobilized cell suspension cultures of Solanum surattense Burm. showed a stimulation in solasodine production, of about 17 times as compared to cell suspensions. Introduction Plant cell cuttures are a potentially rich source of valuable pharmaceuticaIs but relatk, ely few cuttures synthesize secondary compounds in amounts comparable to those found in plants. Manipulation of culture mc-dia, culture conditions and phytohormone levels have hitherto been unsuccessful in commercial production of phytochemicals. Immobilization of plant cells often leads to increase in their potential for releasing secondary products into the medium (Majerus & Pareilleux,1986; Lindsey & Yeoman, 1987). Increased synthesis of secondary products has been obtained by inclusion of elicitors in the medium (Dicosmo & Misawa,1985). Solanum surattense is a rich source of solasodine, an alternative source of diosgenin (Kaul & Zutshi,1982) and is synthesized in high amounts in callus cultures (Heble & Narayanswamy, 1968; Khanna et at., 1976; Barnabas & David, 1986). An increase in solasodine content with immobilization of ceils in suspension cultures has been reported by Barnabas & David (1988) and Subramani et al. (t 989). A study of the effect of combining fungal elicitors and immobiliztion on solasodine production in suspension cultures of Solanum surattense Burm. is reported here. 965