Upstream biomanufacturing of pharmaceutical colchicine

The plant-based colchicine potentially affects major diseases such as cardiovascular events, cancers and gout. Gloriosa superba seeds are a conventional pharmaceutical source of colchicine. The demand for pharmaceutical-grade colchicine has increased due to the shortage of feasible upstream manufacturing, encompassing all stages in the processes of biosynthesis and biomanufacturing before the raw material is ready for purification. Consequently, developing sustainable upstream industrial colchicine biofactories is imperative, especially in curtailing drug costs. A new upstream bioprocess has been established, using specialized biorhizomes with comprehensive specific-enzymes that catalyze the construction of biogenic functionalized intermediates that are converted into colchicine. This review emphasizes a novel biorhizome approach for biomanufacturing pharmaceutical-grade natural colchicine, a biosynthetic pathway elucidation and its challenges to synthetic biotechnology.