In Vitro Propagation and Approaches for Metabolites Production in Medicinal Plants
2012
Gupta, Sushim Kumar | Kuo, Chao-Lin | Zhang, Hongji | Chan, Hsiao-Sung | Chen, Emily Chin-Fun | Chueh, Fu-Shin | Tsay, Hsin-Sheng
There has been a renewed interest in the use of herbal medicines throughout the world due to toxicities and health hazards associated with synthetic drugs and antibiotics. The World Health Organization estimates that up to 80% of people still rely mainly on traditional remedies such as herbs for their medicine, resulting in the increasing demand for medicinal plants. About 85% of traditional medicines involve the use of plant extracts. However, a large number of medicinal plants are needed to be investigated for their possible pharmaceutical value. Many pharmaceutical industries harness wildly growing plant populations for the supply of raw materials for extraction of medicinally important compounds. Many of the medicinal plants are severely threatened owing to illicit and indiscriminate collection and destruction of natural habitat. Advanced biotechnological methods of culturing plant cells and tissue provide an alternative means for rapid propagation and conservation of rare and endangered and/or commercially important medicinal plants. This chapter reviews the work carried out by our group in Taiwan on in vitro propagation of Pinellia ternata, Momordica charantia, Gentiana scabra var Bunge and Taraxacum formosanum and production of secondary metabolites from the callus of Stephania tetrandra, hairy root of Salvia miltiorrhiza and cell suspension culture of Gentiana davidii and Dioscorea doryophora.
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