Growth and Nutrition of a Suspension Culture of Pogostemon cablin Benth. (Patchouli)

Abstract

The growth and nutrient uptake patterns of suspension cultures of Pogostemon cablin Benth. are described. Diffrent relative growth rates were obtained as measured by weight and cell numbers resulting in steady decrease in mean cell size during exponential growth. Net increase in DNA ceased after 16 d and cell numbers declined, although biomass continued to increase. This was shown to be due to a rapid increase in cell size which continued until exhaustion of carbohydrate in the medium. The end of cell division coincided with depletion of phosphate to 0.5 meq/l and was followed by reduced uptake of phosphate and ammonium ions per unit dry-weight gain. Uptake of sugar, nitrate, and potassium was linearly related to dry-weight gain throughout. The frequency distribution of length/breadth-ratio exhibited modes at ratios 1: 1, 2: 1, and 3: 1 significantly more often (5 per cent level) than would be expected with random sampling from populations which did not have multimodal density functions. Cell volumes fell into preferred classes of similar ratio.