Researchers from Stanford University have engineered a typical laboratory plant to provide initial material for a common chemotherapy drug called etoposide. The preliminary material is harvested from an endangered Himalayan mayapple plant, Podophyllum hexandrum.

The drug is synthesized from podophyllotoxin, which is a natural product found in the plant. Study’s lead researcher Elizabeth S. Sattely said that it is not easy to cultivate and grow Podophyllum. Enough material could not be produced, but the difficulties can be avoided by producing an etoposide precursor through a different way.

Sattely said that by knowing how the plant produces the compound, they were able to know how this compound can be genetically engineered in a common lab plant. The drug is being in use since 1983 and has been curing different kinds of cancer.

But by growing Nicotiana benthamiana, it may be easy to harvest the chemical easily. The researchers think that if chemical engineers can produce it from yeast then the yield may be even greater. The researchers have registered success by genetically engineering the lab plant.

The researchers were aware of four genes out of 10 and have found the other six genes by searching the RNA produced by wounded mayapple plants. Using bacterial plasmids, the researchers have transferred the pathway into Nicotiana benthamiana.

Though the work is interesting, there is a long way before precursor could be obtained from tobacco in significant amounts, said Norman G. Lewis from Washington State University.