Microspectrophotometric evaluation of rosmarinic acid accumulation in single cultured plant cells

Abstract

By use of microspectrophotometry in the ultraviolet region, rosmarinic acid was confirmed to be largely accumulated in the vacuoles of suspension cultured cells of Anchusa officinalis and Coleus blumei. The relative internal concentration of this metabolite in living cells can also be estimated with this technique. A comparison of the rosmarinic acid production and nuclear DNA content of individual cells suggests that the culture-related genome expansion may depress rosmarinic acid accumulation.