الفهرس 
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Abstract
The aim of this thesis was to establish and maintain a cell suspension culture of J. curcas, family Euphorbiaceae for the study of the possible biotransformation of the diterpenoid anti-cancer compound paclitaxel.
This thesis was concerned about resolving some queries. The extensive search in the literature raised a question which is could the cell suspension cultures obtained from plants capable of producing phorbol and curcusone B, cytotoxic materials affect other cytotoxic substrates isolated from different plants as paclitaxel of structural resemblance to phorbol and curcusone B. Also, could these plant tissues maintain their viability in the presence of a cytotoxic diterpenoid as paclitaxel. The experimental studies in this thesis answered these questions satisfactory.
In this study, a callus line of J. curcas leaves and petioles was maintained successfully over a period of two consecutive years without any change in growth rate. Also, a stable cell suspension culture was developed using the obtained callus and maximum increase in fresh weight was reached on day 21 which was 5-6 fold over initial fresh weight. The cell suspension cultures were inoculated with the diterpenoid paclitaxel (5 mg) at different time intervals through the growth cycle phases. The incubation of paclitaxel proved that the cell culture biotransformation capability could not affect the paclitaxel molecular structure and that the applied dose of paclitaxel was not cytotoxic to the cell cultures during 18 days of incubation.
In conclusion, this is the first report of a biotransformation trial using J. curcas cell culture and results obtained should be considered when using J. curcas cell line for terpenoid biotransformation. The findings in this study present substantial considerations for terpenoid biotransformation. Further studies on the root cell cultures of J. curcas as well as the use of closely related diterpenoid substrates plus changing the growth factors condition are possible endeavors for the relevant understanding of the biotransformation process using this promising system.