In recent times, natural herbal products/biomolecules are gaining immense
impetus, over modern synthetic allopathic medicines, for curing serious human
ailments as the former are proving their better efficacy, causing no or minimum side
effects. Consequently, many pharmaceutical industries are coming forward for
exploring novel drugs based on medicinal plants. Cullen corylifolium (L.) Medik., a
well-known traditional medicinal herb of China and India, is extensively used in
Ayurvedic medicine to cure several skin diseases such as psoriasis, leprosy and
leucoderma. Besides, it also has properties like antioxidant, anti-cancer, antiinflammatory, hepatoprotective, anti-diabetic, anti-mycobacterial, and anti-helminthic
due to the occurrence of a number of important furanocoumarins and isoflavonoids.
Furanocoumarins and isoflavonoids are biosynthesized via the phenylpropanoid
pathway in the plant parts of C. corylifolium and are extensively used as anticancerous
agents. The prominent marker compounds occurring in C. corylifolium are psoralen,
genistein and daidzein produced mainly in the green seeds. These are highly expensive
and occur in very low amounts. In vitro cell, tissue and organ culture can be used as an
alternative, controllable, sustainable and eco-friendly tool for rapid multiplication of
cells for the synthesis and elicitation of bioactive compounds. In addition, various
strategies such as precursors feeding, hairy root culture, biotic and abiotic elicitors, cell
suspension cultures, cloning and overexpression of genes involved in biosynthetic
pathways of secondary metabolites. are also available for the enhancement of bioactive
secondary metabolites. The present review aims at the screening of high-yielding elite
plant parts, biosynthetic pathways of psoralen, daidzein and genistein, and various
strategies employed for their elicitation and isolation in C. corylifolium.
Keywords: Biosynthetic Pathway, Cullen corylifolium, Callus, Daidzein, Elicitation, Genistein, Green seed cotyledons, Isolation, Key enzyme genes, Psoralen.
