Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Introduction
Plants with medicinal properties (secondary metabolites) have been used by humans
to treat infections, health disorders, and illness since the early days of mankind
(Lovkova et al.
2001
; Wyk and Wink
2004
; Toso
2010
). Plants and plant cell cul-
tures have served as resources for flavours (food additives), aromas and fragrances,
cosmetics (cosmeceuticals), biobased fuels, insecticides, perfumes, fine chemicals
and bioactive compounds (Balandrin and Klocke
1988
) and are collectively known
as secondary metabolites. These compounds are also well known to play a key
role in the adjustment of plants to their surroundings (Rao and Ravishankar
2002
).
During the last 50 years research work on plant secondary metabolites has been
increasing because the daily lives including health care are essentially depends on
these plant products (Mulabagal and Tsay
2004
). Therefore, in order to achieve the
market demand, cultivation of medicinal plants and
in vitro
production of plant
secondary metabolites are the only sustainable ways.
Plant cell, tissue, and organ cultures has an inherent capacity to manufacture
valuable chemical compounds as the parent plant does in nature which has been
recognized since the commencement of
in vitro
technology.
In vitro
plant materials
are one of the good sources for the production of secondary metabolite and also pro-
vide an excellent environment for in-depth investigation of biochemical and meta-
bolic pathways (Mulabagal and Tsay
2004
; Karuppusamy
2009
).
In vitro
studies
including plant tissues and suspension cultures are continued in diverse directions
for the commercial production of secondary metabolites (Ramawat and Merillon
2007
; Ghorpade et al.
2011
). The accumulation of secondary compounds during
plant cell cultures varies significantly due to the elements of the culture medium
and environmental conditions (Stafford et al.
1986
). Various efforts have been made
to circumvent these biological and technological limitations (Lee and Shuler
1991
).
Robins (
1994
) reported different strategies in order to improve the synthesis of sec-
ondary metabolites in suspension cultures. Different media have been employed for
different species and the use of biotic and abiotic elicitors has also been engaged
because of their strong and rapid improving effects on indole alkaloid synthesis
(Moreno et al
1995
). There are many reports of cell culture in which secondary
metabolites has been produced, such as solasodine production from calli of
Sola-
num eleagnifolium
and from root cultures of
Senecio
production of pyrrolizidine
alkaloids (Nigra et al.
1987
; Toppel et al.
1987
) and production of anthraquinones
in cell cultures of
Rubia tinctorum
(Abd El-Mawla
2012
). Jha et al. (
1988
) separated
cephaelin and emetine from callus cultures of
Cephaelis ipecacuanha
and quinoline
alkaloids in considerable amount was separated from
Cinchona ledgeriana
cell sus-
pension cultures (Scragg et al.
1992
). In
C. roseus
, Zhao et al. (
2001e
) reported en-
hanced alkaloid biosynthesis in suspension culture, Ravishankar and Grewal (
1991
)
reported production of diosgenin in callus culture of
Dioscorea
deltoidea
by assess-
ing the effect of media constituents and nutrient stress. Cardenolides biosynthesis
was noted to be maximum in the hairy root culture of
Digitalis lanata
as compared
to leaf (Pradel et al.
1997
) and
in vitro
synthesis of azadirachtin and nimbin was less
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