Plant cell and tissue cultures hold great promise for controlled production of myriad of useful secondary metabolites. In the search for alternatives to production of medicinal compounds from plants, biotechnological approaches, specifically plant tissue cultures, are found to have potential as a supplement to traditional agriculture in the industrial production of bioactive plant metabolites. Exploration of the biosynthetic capabilities of various cell cultures has been carried out by a group of plant scientists and microbiologists in several countries during the last decade. A number of medicinally important alkaloids, anticancer drugs, recombinant proteins and food additives are produced in various cultures of plant cell and tissues. Advances in the area of cell cultures for the production of medicinal compounds has made possible the production of a wide variety of pharmaceuticals like alkaloids, terpenoids, steroids, saponins, phenolics, flavanoids and amino acids. Some of these are now available commercially in the market for example shikonin and paclitaxel (Taxol). Until now 20 different recombinant proteins have been produced in plant cell culture, including antibodies, enzymes, edible vaccines, growth factors and cytokines. Advances in scale-up approaches and immobilization techniques contribute to a considerable increase in the number of applications of plant cell cultures for the production of compounds with a high added value. Some of the secondary plant products obtained from cell suspension culture of various plants. Cell suspension culture systems are used now days for large scale culturing of plant cells from which secondary metabolites could be extracted. A suspension culture is developed by transferring the relatively friable portion of the callus into liquid medium and is maintained under suitable conditions of aeration, agitation, light, temperature and other physical parameters. Cell cultures cannot only yield defined standard phytochemicals in large volumes but also eliminate the presence of interfering compounds that occur in the field-grown plants. The advantage of this method is that it can ultimately provide a continuous, reliable source of natural products. The major advantage of the cell cultures include synthesis of bioactive secondary metabolites, running in controlled environment, independently from climate and soil conditions. A number of different types of bioreactors have been used for mass cultivation of plant cells. The first commercial application of large scale cultivation of plant cells was carried out in stirred tank reactors to produce shikonin by cell culture of Lithospermume rythrorhizon. Cell of Catharanthus roseus, Dioscorea deltoidea, Digitalis lanata, Panaxnoto ginseng, Taxus wallichiana and Podophyllum hexandrum have been cultured in various bioreactors for the production of secondary plant products. Plant tissue culture represents the most promising areas of application at present time and giving an out look into the future. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: This study was financed by project: Vybudovanie výskumného centra ,,AgroBioTech“, ITMS kód: 26220220180.

alkaloids, plant tissue cultures, production, secondary metabolites

Presentation: oral