Estimulación de cardenólidos en brotes de Digitalis purpurea L. cultivados in vitro mediante elicitores Stimulation of cardenolides production in Digitalis purpurea L. shoot cultures by elicitors addition

Digitalis purpurea L. is one of the main sources of cardenolides such as digitoxin and digoxin. These drugs are widely used to strengthen cardiac diffusion and to regulate heart rhythm. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of three eli- citors on shoots of Digitalis purpurea var. Roter Berggold in semisolid media in order to increase cardenolides biosynthesis. Elicitation is a strategy to increase biomass and secondary metabolites production on in vitro cultures. The elicitors evalua- ted were ChitoPlant (0,001; 0,01; 0,1 g.L -1 ); SilioPlant (0,01; 0,1; 1,0 g.L -1 ) and Methyl jasmonate (60, 80, 100 µM), which are reported here to induce cardenolide production for first time. Elicitation resulted an effective strategy to increase carde- nolide production on D. purpurea shoot cultures. ChitoPlant induced a decrease in shoots length, but had no effect on the rest of morphological parameters evaluated. As well, ChitoPlant increased cardenolide content. SilioPlant (0,01 g.L -1 ) did not affect biomass production and at the same time, increased in 3,6-fold and 6,9-fold digoxin and digitoxin content respec-