PHYTOCHEMICAL PROFILE OF Coryphantha macromeris (Engelm.) Britton & Rose (CACTACEAE) OBTAINED FROM in vitro CULTURE

In the last years, the demand for natural products has increased. Different cacti species has demonstrated to be a source for the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, as is the case of Coryphantha macromeris (Engelm.) Britton & Rose. The aim of this work was to evaluate the capacity of C. macromeris growing under controlled in vitro conditions for the obtention of secondary metabolites. In vitro cultures of C. macromeris plants were established from seeds using Murashige and Skoog culture medium and then the phytochemical profile of aerial and radicular sections was analyzed by means of ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-PDA-HESI-Orbitrap-MS/MS). Under the proposed conditions, 43 metabolites were identified; seven of them are reported here for the first time for this cacti species. Organic acids (citric, gluconic and tianshic acids), and phenolic acids such as piscidic, ferulic and syringic acid and/or their derivatives were found as the metabolites with the highest relative abundance. Our results suggest that the in vitro culture of C. macromeris represents a potential source for the obtention of selected compounds and serve as the basis for future investigations regarding the culture of C. macromeris under different biotechnological systems.