Abstract: Plating culture technique was used for screening high-producing of a-tocopherol variants from the culture cells of Carthamus tinctorius L. The content of α-tocopherol in cul-ture cells was measured by HPLC method. The cell variants were selected from more than 200 clones induced from single cell or small cell aggregates (2-8 cells), and found that these clones were significant difference in a-tocopherol synthesis and cell growth, a-tocopherol contents were varied from 0 to 138.9 ug/ gDW and cell growth rates were varied from 0.20 to 0.53 gDW/ l.d at the first generation of clones. There was not a significant correlation between a-tocopherol productivity and cell growth in these clones. The stability of some clones which high-producing α-tocopherol was tested. A more stable high-producing α-tocopherol clone line (CT-289) had been selected through out near 20 passages successive subculturing.

Key words: Carthamus tinctorius