Biotechnological Production of Bioactive Phytochemicals of Medicinal Value

Plants are a source of bioactive compounds and specialty chemicals such as ginsenosides; paclitaxel, artemisinin, veregen and nutraceuticals. Biopharmaceuticals are important in human healthcare, and herbal actives are gaining importance all over the world. With natural resources dwindling, in vitro production of secondary compounds on a commercial scale is being more and more required. The difficulties that are increasingly encountered in procuring ample supply of raw plant material because of drastic decrease in natural resources have prompted the adaptation of in vitro technology for commercial production of substances of medicinal importance. Besides providing an alternative technology to bypass the above difficulties, the plant tissue culture (used in a broad sense to include cell, tissue and organ culture) offers many advantages. In vitro technology also facilitates novel means of conserving the genetic diversity of the germplasm of medicinal plants through cryopreservation, and production of novel compounds through biotransformation, somatic hybridization and selective gene transfer through recombinant DNA technology for enhancing the metabolite production. Biotechnological production of bioactive phytochemicals of medicinal value covers a broad variety of methods for secondary metabolites production (both pharmaceuticals and cosmeceuticals), compiling state-of-the-art material about the current knowledge of in vitro production for a large number of bioactive phytochemicals. - Compiles state-of-the-art material about in vitro production for several bioactive phytochemicals- Incorporates the most recent developments in the field- Covers a broad variety of secondary metabolites