Preliminary Investigation of Chemical Constituents in Callus Tissue of Danshen

Callus tissue of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge. can he used to biosynthesize diterpinequinones such as Tanshinone. The Callus tissue was grown on Murashige-Skoog (MS)medium containing 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid ( 2,4-D ) 1mg/l or Indole aceticacid (IAA) 1mg/l or Naphthyl acetic acid ( NAA ) 1mg/l in the dark.It was found,after three weeks, that callus tissue growing on medium with IAA or NAA. turned red. An orange-red crystalline substance was isolated from the chloroform extract of red callusdry powder by silica column chromatography. It was found to be identical with cryptotanshinone by comparison with their mp, HPLC, UV and MS data.