Organizing co mmittee

NATURAL COMPOUNDS OF THE GENUS LYCIUM AND 
PROSPECTS OF A BIOTECHNOLOGICAL METHOD OF 
PRESERVATION AND PRACTICAL USE 
 
Ekaterina Anatolyevna Lapchenko, Elena Vladimirovna Spiridovich, Vladislav 
Viktorovich Strelkovskiy, Vladimir Nikolaevich Reshetnikov 
Central Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus 
 
Plant cell and tissue cultures provide useful alternatives for the production of 
valuable biologically active compounds, providing standardized, contaminant-free, and 
biosustainable systems for producing targeted compounds on an industrial scale. For the 
production of valuable natural compounds, the choice of a producing plant is important. 
Representatives of the genus 
Lycium
(russian dereza (
Lycium ruthenicum
), chinese 
dereza (
Lycium chinense
), common dereza (
Lycium barbarum
)) are medicinal plants 
containing, in general, natural phenolic compounds in all organs, among which there are 
also hydroxycinnamic acids (chlorogenic acid), flavonols (quercetin, kaempferol), 
flavonoids (rutin), catechins (epicatechin), betaine. The biological properties of goji 
berries (
Lycium barbarum
) are widely known. Data are given on antioxidant, anti-
inflammatory, anti-aging properties, hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic activity, 
modulation of the intestinal microbiota, neuroprotective effect on retinal ganglion cells, 
immunomodulatory, hepatoprotective and antitumor effects. 
Medicinal raw materials from plants of the genus 
Lycium
, obtained by a 
biotechnological method, can be used as a promising source for the production of new 
highly effective drugs with an universal organ-protective effect on the human body. In 
cell culture in vitro, chains of biochemical reactions and transformations of substances 
are effectively analyzed. Identification of the most significant physiological reactions 
associated with salt tolerance will make it possible to use them as markers for testing 
and selecting salt-tolerant forms. Previously, researches on the studies of the 
biochemical composition of cell cultures and tissues of plants of the genus 
Lycium
were 
not carried out in Belarus. We have studied the germination of seeds obtained from the 
bottom of the Aral Sea under a cooperation agreement with the Institute of Bioorganic 
Chemistry of the National Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, halophyte of russian 
dereza (
L. ruthenicum
), chinese dereza (
L. chinense
), common dereza (
L. barbarum
) 
under sterile conditions. For the germination of annual seeds of these species, a 16-hour 
photoperiod and a temperature of 25°C are optimal. When introduced into in vitro 
culture, it was found that multi-stage sterilization significantly reduces the viability of 
seeds and seedlings of 
L. ruthenicum
, 
L. chinense
, 
L. barbarum
and, consequently, their 
germination. The optimal medium for the stable development of microsprouts (no 
anomalies, no callus formation) was Woody plant medium (WPM) supplemented with 
15 g/l sucrose, 6.5 g/l agar-agar, pH 5.6–5.8 before autoclaving . To maintain samples 
of the in vitro collection, we used half WPM medium without hormones, without 
sucrose, a lower positive temperature of 4°C, illumination of ~500 lx, and a photoperiod 
of 8 h. 
The obtained samples of 
L. ruthenicum
, 
L. barbarum
, 
L. chinense
in vitro collections 
can be used to develop methods for healing microplants from viral infections; for 
genotyping samples; in the morpho-biological study of ex vitro plants resistant to salt 
stress, as a starting material for the initiation of cell and suspension cultures. 

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Poster presentation 
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