Echinacea purpurea is an important medicinal plant native of North America, which contains caffeic acid derivatives, alkamides, glycoproteins, and polysaccharides. For commercial roduction of bioactive compounds from Echinacea purpurea, adventitious roots were induced and proliferated in 5 and 20-liter bioreactors under various cultural conditions (Medium composition, inoculum density, air volume, light, temperature et al.). In a 5-liter bioreactor, more than 10-fold of biomass increment was achieved after 5 weeks of culture. Increases of root biomass and bioactive compounds were correlated with increased consumption of sucrose and macro/micro nutrients in the medium. Elicitations have been conducted with UV-C, NO, and SA to increase the accumulation of total polyphenolics, flavonoids and caffeic acid derivatives in the adventitious root cultures, which resulted in 1.2-1.6 times of increment. Based on the previous experimental results, 500-liter and 1000-liter scale bioreactors were applied for large scale cultures of Echinacea purpurea adventitious roots. Total root biomass of 3.62 kg and 5.05kg (dry weight) were achieved in a 500 L and a 1000 L bioreactor, respectively. The accumulation of 22.55 mg/g DW cichoric acid, 4.92 mg/g DW chlorogenic acid and 3.99 mg/g DW caftaric acids were also achieved from the adventitious root in a 1000-liter scale bioreactor.

• Chun-Hua Wu(Research Center for the Development of Advanced Horticultural Technology, Chungbuk National University)
• Eun-Joo Hahn(Research Center for the Development of Advanced Horticultural Technology, Chungbuk National University)
• Kee-Yoeup Paek(Research Center for the Development of Advanced Horticultural Technology, Chungbuk National University) Corresponding author