Isoflavone production in Cyclopia subternata Vogel (honeybush) suspension cultures grown in shake flasks and stirred-tank bioreactor.

Suspension cultures of the endemic South-African plant Cyclopia subternata were established for the first time and evaluated for the presence of isoflavones. The influence of light, as well as medium supplementation strategies with phenylalanine, casein hydrolysate and coconut water on biomass growth and isoflavone production were examined. The highest levels of 7-O-ß-glucosides of calycosin, pseudobaptigenin and formononetin (275.57, 125.37 and 147.28 mg/100 g DW, respectively) were recorded for cultures grown in the absence of light, whereas coconut water substantially promoted biomass growth. Cell suspensions were subsequently grown in the 2-l stirred-tank bioreactor. Maximum productivity of 7-O-ß-glucosides of calycosin, pseudobaptigenin and formononetin (0.96, 0.44 and 0.22 mg l(-1) day(-1), respectively) in bioreactor-cultivated cells was obtained for biomass grown in the dark and supplemented with coconut water. The results indicate that C. subternata suspension cultures can be utilised for the production of the specified isoflavone derivatives absent in the intact plant.

The use of cluster and principal component analysis in the estimation of iron status in term newborns.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the relationship between parameters of iron homeostasis in infants and clinical features characterizing newborns and their mothers. METHODS: The goal of the present work was to determine nine iron status parameters, i.e. hepcidin, prohepcidin, soluble transferrin receptor, ferritin, total iron binding capacity, unsaturated iron binding capacity, transferrin saturation, erythropoietin and total iron concentration, in the cord blood of 57 term newborns as well as to determine the complete blood count in their mothers. Moreover, an appraisal of the relationships between all of the iron parameters, the mothers' hematological factors and 12 clinical attributes was carried out using both cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA). RESULTS: We found that hepcidin is not correlated with its precursor, but it is strongly positively correlated with the total iron concentration. The CA divided all of the 24 parameters into three clusters and showed that certain clinical features, e.g. the APGAR score, mother's age or parity are related to the hepcidin and prohepcidin concentration. CONCLUSION: We demonstrated that CA and PCA are efficacious methods for assessing the relationship between iron metabolism parameters in cord blood and large amounts of clinical characteristics.