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The screening of plant-derived compounds with anti-cancer properties is a promising strategy to meet the growing need for new, safe and effective anti-cancer drugs. Justicidin B is a plants secondary metabolite that displays anti-cancer properties in several tumor cells. Therefore, it represents a good candidate. We used the 3R-compliant organism Caenorhabditis elegans to evaluate the safety of justicidin B produced by in vitro -grown adventitious roots of Linum lewisii . We showed that a dose of 100 µg/mL justicidin B does not affect worm vitality in either short-term or chronic administration; in contrast, the 200 µg/mL dose induces a lifespan reduction, but only in short-term daily treatment. We attributed this effect to its accumulation in lipofuscin granules in the pharynx as observed through confocal analysis. HPLC analysis confirmed the higher accumulation justicidin B with a 200 µg/mL dose but also revealed the presence of metabolic derivatives that could be responsible for the toxicity. We also demonstrated that the 100 µg/mL dose does not affect worm fertility or development. Our results highlight the safety of justicidin B, supporting its employment in cancer therapy, and encourage the use of a C. elegans model as an appropriate tool to assess compounds' toxicity before moving to more complex organisms.

Salvia corrugata Vahl. is an interesting source of abietane and abeo -abietane compounds that showed antibacterial, antitumor, and cytotoxic activities. The aim of the study was to obtain transformed roots of S. corrugata and to evaluate the production of terpenoids in comparison with in vivo root production. Hairy roots were initiated from leaf explants by infection with ATCC 15834 Agrobacterium rhizogenes onto hormone-free Murashige and Skoog (MS) solid medium. Transformation was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction analysis of rolC and virC1 genes. The biomass production was obtained in hormone-free liquid MS medium using Temporary Immersion System bioreactor RITA ® . The chromatographic separation of the methanolic extract of the untransformed roots afforded horminone, ferruginol, 7- O -acetylhorminone and 7- O -methylhorminone. Agastol and ferruginol were isolated and quantified from the hairy roots. The amount of these metabolites indicated that the hairy roots of S. corrugata can be considered a source of these compounds.