Objective: To explore the approach to producing plant secondary metabolites using hairy root culture method. Methods: The
medicinal plant Rheum
wittrochii Lundstr., was genetically with Ri plasmid harbouring in Agrobacterium rhizogenes 9402 strain to induce hairy roots; transformed the opines from the hairy roots were assayed by paper electrophoresis; the contents of free anthroquinones such as aloe emodin, rhein, chrysophanol, emodin, physcion, 8 O methylchrysophanol from the hairy roots were quantitatively determined by HPLC technique. Results: The hairy root was successfully induced and the hairy root culture system was set up; The opines assay was positive for mannopine and agropine; The result of determination showed that there were a lot of anthroquinone constituents in the rhubarb hairy root and the contents of rhein, aloe emodin, emodin or 8 O methylchrysophanol were respectively higher than those in wild plant root. Conclusion: The hairy root
cultures of Rheum wittrochii Lundstr. produced similar constitutents as the medicinal site of the wild plant.