Biologists Have Shown that Licorice Leaves Are Useful and Have Grown Calluses From It

11:16, May 20, 2024

The effects of the plant extracts were tested on in vitro models [photo report]

Not only the licorice root but also its leaves are useful for health, as biologists of UrFU have shown. Scientists have conducted research and found that licorice leaves contain a variety of useful substances, so licorice can be used to create biologically active additives that protect the body's cells from the aggressive environment, the researchers believe, but add: first it is necessary to conduct experiments on laboratory models. In the Russian Journal of Plant Physiology, the scientists published data on the composition of licorice leaves and the results of their cultivation in test tubes.

"Licorice root syrup is widely known to be taken for diseases of the upper respiratory tract. However, licorice leaves are not used as a raw material for pharmaceuticals, although recently there has been an active study of their chemical composition and biological activity. We believe that licorice leaves are unjustly ignored because they also contain beneficial substances," explains Alexander Yermoshin, Associate Professor of the Department of Experimental Biology and Biotechnologies at UrFU.

Studies by biologists have shown that licorice leaves contain flavonoids and other phenolic compounds that may have anti-inflammatory and other properties. Therefore, extracts of the plant may become a new promising raw material for the creation of substances with useful properties. However, in order to utilize plants without harming natural populations, it is necessary to learn how to reproduce them under laboratory conditions.

"Active collection of licorice for the needs of medicine and food industry has led to depletion of its natural reserves and reduction of genetic diversity. In a number of regions of the Russian Federation and neighboring countries, licorice is on the verge of extinction and is listed in the regional Red Books. Therefore, in order to use licorice on an industrial scale, it is necessary to learn how to grow it in laboratories. On the one hand, this will help to preserve natural populations, and on the other hand, it will allow us to obtain the necessary raw materials more quickly, in larger quantities, and sometimes with the required content of substances," says Irina Kiseleva, Head of the Department of Experimental Biology and Biotechnology at UrFU.

For industrial quantities (production of medicines, cosmetics), bioengineers grow callus cultures (cell mass with plant properties) - a tiny piece of plant is placed in a special medium and the necessary biomass is obtained. Such a callus culture grows much faster than a whole plant. For example, ginseng root grows in the wild at the rate of 1 gram per year, in plantations - 5 grams per year, and in a callus culture - 15-20 grams per liter per month.

The problem is that with similar genetic composition, cells of different parts of the plant (root, stem, leaves) are different, and it is difficult to obtain biomass from them with the necessary composition of substances.

UrFU biologists used licorice from the collection of the Botanical Garden of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which became the basis for callus culture. The callus was grown on special media with different combinations of phytohormones (nine variants). As a result, the best combination was selected. In such samples, biologists found the content of flavonoids comparable to the leaves and roots of licorice plants, and the content of phenols comparable to their amount in roots.

"The callus extracts we obtained have pronounced antioxidant activity comparable to licorice extracts, as well as that of rutin (vitamin P), gallic acid, and ascorbic acid. The extracts were tested on isolated animal cells. The experiments showed that all extracts increased the metabolic activity of both healthy and pathological cells. The stimulation of activity was higher in the normal cell culture than in the tumor cell line. Leaf extracts had the highest stimulating effect, while callus extracts had the lowest stimulating effect. In other words, the callus extract does not kill tumor cells, but does not affect their proliferation and stimulates the growth of normal cells," says Alexander Yermoshin.

Now, biologists must choose the composition of phytohormones to learn how to grow callus with the desired composition and properties.

Reference

Licorice is a perennial plant of the legume family. The licorice root has been used in traditional and folk medicine in many countries since ancient times. Its extracts are used mainly as an expectorant, to correct the taste of galenic preparations, and as an excipient to facilitate the penetration of other active substances into human tissues when taking medicines. Despite the long use of licorice in medicine, it is still being studied (chemical composition and biological activity).

Anna Marinovich

The news article was translated by UrFU International Marketing Office.
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