ABSTRACT
Centella asiatica is an important medicinal plant which contains various phytocompounds. Asiatic acid and asiaticosideare two major compounds which are responsible for its various pharmaceutical activities. The present study analyzesthe effect of elicitor, i.e., methyl jasmonate on the synthesis of asiaticoside and asiatic acid (ATA) in shoot, callus, andcell suspension cultures of C. asiatica. A high-performance liquid chromatography analysis showed that the elicitationwith 100 µM concentration of methyl jasmonate enhanced asiaticoside content by 69-fold in callus culture, 39-fold inshoot cultures, and ATA by 1.9-fold in cell suspension culture. Thus, elicitation with methyl jasmonate is an effectivemethod of increasing the rate of biosynthesis of asiaticoside and ATA in plant cell cultures of C. asiatica