Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Plant Biotechnology Reports (2019) 13:263–271 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11816-019-00534-3 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Using hairy roots for production of secondary metabolites in Artemisia Zahra Mottaki 1  · Maryam Rezayian 1  · Vahid Niknam 1  · Hassan Ebrahimzadeh 1  · Masoud Mirmasoumi 1 Received: 6 February 2019 / Accepted: 28 March 2019 / Published online: 10 April 2019 © Korean Society for Plant Biotechnology 2019 Abstract Secondary metabolites are a group of chemical compounds in plants which have various functions and applications in difer- ent industries such as leather and pharmaceutical products. Artemisia is a genus of important vascular plants which contains many species. There are many chemical compounds in Artemisia which are still unknown. Additionally, hairy root culture in plants is considered to be one of the new techniques applied to production of secondary metabolites which denotes the vast application of this technique. Hairy root culture as a diferentiated tissue has been under consideration for many researchers which is because of its genetic stabilization; its rapid growth in a hormone-free medium is also very important. The current study is conducted with the objective of hairy root induction in explant parts of some Artemisia species with various strains of Agrobacterium rhizogenes. The results show that total protein content and enzyme activity during hairy root induction has an ascending procedure. Phenol and favonoid content have shown considerable increase. The sterol and essential oil have also shown interesting consistency towards each other. To the best of our knowledge, this is the frst report of produc- tion secondary metabolites and antioxidant activities by hairy root-derived Artemisia. This study may open possibilities for production of the pharmaceutically high-value secondary metabolites. Keywords Artemisia · Agrobacterium rhizogenes · Hairy root · Essential oil · Sterol Introduction Artemisia annua (annual wormwood, sweet wormwood, and sweet annie), belonging to the Asteraceae family, is an aromatic, annual and perennial plant up to 1–3 m high and 1 m wide (Delabrays et al. 1992). The plant is now natural- ized in some countries such as Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Romania and United States (Klayman 1993). A. annua generates and accumu- lates various secondary metabolites. Various compounds are found in this plant, including: terpenoids, favonoids, coumarins, steroids, phenols, purines, lipids, and aliphatic compounds. Glandular trichomes are the source of highly aromatic volatile oils, mainly Artemisia ketone, 1,8-cineole camphor; germacrene D, camphene hydrate, alpha-pinene; betacaryophyllene, myrcene, and artemisia alcohol (Fer- reira and Janick 2009). A. annua has some pharmacological activities as anti-malarial, anti-infammatory, analgesic, anti- septic, antiviral, and anticancer (Lydon et al. 1997). In addition to the primary metabolites, plants are able to produce compounds that are used as drugs, favors, per- fumes, colors, bio-herbicides and edible additives. These compounds are called secondary metabolites. Plants pro- duce a range of important secondary metabolites. Secondary metabolites are not essential to plant growth and hence are produced in small amounts. The production of secondary compounds depends on the physiological and developmental stages of the plant. These compounds are stored in specifc cells or organs. Secondary metabolites in plants include phenols, terpenes and steroids, and alkaloids. Secondary metabolites have a complex structure, so their production is difcult, and extraction of them from the plant requires a lot of time and high cost. Thus, scientists focus on the cultiva- tion of cells, tissues, plant organs and hairy roots to produce secondary metabolites (Kieran et al. 1997; Ravishankar and Venkataraman 1993). Agrobacterium rhizogenes has the ability to induce hairy root in the host plant. The hairy roots are induced by the transfer of T-DNA from the bacterial plasmid to the host tissue, which causes the production of hairy roots and the Online ISSN 1863-5474 Print ISSN 1863-5466 * Vahid Niknam vniknam@khayam.ut.ac.ir 1 School of Biology, Center for Excellence in Phylogeny of Living Organisms in Iran, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran