A Rapid, Continuous and Renewable Method for The Production of The Anticancer Drug Camptothecin

Medicinal plants form an important source for a wide variety of natural products used in the treatment of a various types of diseases like cancer, hypertension, malaria, AIDS etc. These drugs possess a complex organic structure with several chiral centres and are difficult to synthesise in the laboratory. On the contrary , plants accumulate these products with ease under natural conditions. This in turn has resulted in the exploitation of several medicinal plants for the production and export of life saving drugs. In the case of the anticancer drug camptothecin, commercial production is from the tree Camptotheca acuminata. Many trees are uprooted from the natural flora and used for camptothecin production. Biotechnological approaches on the medicinal plant Ophiorrhiza. developed in BARC showed significant levels of camptothecin during a short period of time. Thus they provide a continuous and renewable source for the production of the high value drug camptothecin.

Advantages

• The method is reproducible
• High levels of camptothecin can be obtained during a short period of time
• Plant in nature, survive only for 8-9 months whereas the present technology represents a continuous and a reproducible method for camptothecin production

Application Areas

• The method is useful to multiply elite medicinal plants which inturn help in the conservation and preservation of endangered medicinal plants that are becoming rare and extinct in the natural habitat due to overexploitation
• This technology can be taken up by biotech and pharmaceutical companies already engaged in medicinal plant based research

Requirements