Production of Oleanolic Acid by Plant Tissue Culture â A Review

Abstract

This review is focused on production of oleanolic acid (a triterpenoid) from different plants using tissue culture. Oleanolic acid has pharmacological actions, such as anti- inflammatory, anti-hyperlipidemic, hepatoprotective, antiviral and anti-tumor. Owing to its pharmacological importance much research is focused on the production and extraction of oleanolic acid. Conventional method of isolation of oleanolic acid from plant material has disadvantages such as extract variability and instability. The production of oleanolic acid by tissue culture offers the opportunity to optimize the yield of the compound and to obtain a uniform, high quality product. Most often plant cell culture technologies not lead to enhanced secondary metabolite production. Therefore, for enhanced oleanolic acid production, conditions such as medium optimization, light, temperature, nutrients, carbon source, pH, elicitors and permeabilisation are to be considered. This review may help in further research on factors effecting the production of high yield of oleanolic acid by tissue culture.