Shoot Organogenesis, Genetic Stability, and Secondary Metabolite Production of Micropropagated Digitalis purpurea.

Digitalis purpurea L. is a cardenolide-producing medicinal and ornamental plant.
Cardenolides, like digoxin, are commonly used to treat congestive heart failure,
cardiac arrhythmia, and atrial fibrillation. More recently, its cytotoxic activity on
several types of cancer and antiviral effect have been confirmed. As chemical
synthesis is not viable, D. purpurea plants are one of the major sources of
cardenolides for the pharmaceutical industry. However, cardenolide content is
highly variable under natural conditions. Therefore, D. purpurea in vitro culture
has been a focus of research since the second half of the twentieth century. This
chapter is a compendium of these reports with emphasis on the effects of
morphogenesis, culture conditions, and in vitro culture medium composition on
cardenolide content. Besides, some studies on the genetic stability of Digitalis
plants are summarized. Finally, we describe the biotechnological approaches
reported so far to obtain a higher yield of cardenolides in vitro, such as elicitation and metabolic engineering, both recognized as promising strategies.