Dear Ashwani,

Not much has helped the biotechnology cause of it- as far as I am concerned.

Yes, GMO side has evolved  a lot. But then beyond agrobacterial and biolistic transformation any other distinct plant transformation protocols have evolved? No.

Except for the success of Shikonin and Taxol production from in vitro cultures (little bit of vinca alkaloids and artemisinin production) any new drugs are being produced using plant in vitro micropropagation technologies (tissue culture) ? No.

Foriegn proteins expressed in plants have reached people or have been approved by agencies and FDA? No.

Definitely, a lot of new secondary plant metabolites keep getting added up to the list because new species have been discovered rapdly and elicitation have provided means to newer synthesis, for sure. But then, have any of them hit the drug market ? No.

Bioreactors, hairy root cultures, phytohormone manipulation, nursery cultures have not evolved ever since.

No doubt new fields like NGS, microarrays, proteomics, epigenetics and metabolomics (probably these can be included in the new versionof the book though!) have their forays into plant biotechnology, but have they helped in understanding of in vivo gown or crop or fruit crops to any greater extent? No.

Books are fine and theory is one thing, but in practice I have not seen tissue culture/ plant biotechnology solving humanities ever standing problems/ issues- medicine, food, fibre, fuel etc.

Thanks,

Biswa

Secondary Metabolites in Plant Cultures: Applications and Production

Read this article to learn about the applications of secondary metabolites and the production process of secondary metabolites in plant cultures.

The production process comprises of seven aspects.

The seven aspects are: (1) Selection of cell lines for high yield of secondary metabolites (2) Large scale cultivation of plant cells (3) Medium composition and effect of nutrients (4) Elicitor-induced production of secondary metabolites (5) Effect of environmental factors (6) Biotransformation using plant cell cultures and (7) Secondary metabolite release and analysis.

Applications of Secondary Metabolites:

From the time immemorial, man has been dependent on the plant products, besides the supply of food from plants. These plant products, mostly the secondary metabolites include pharmaceuticals, flavours, perfumes, agrochemicals, insecticides and raw materials for industries. Chemically, the plant products may be alkaloids, terpenoids, glycosides (steroids, phenolics) etc.

As and when available, the natural plant products are preferred to synthetic products, by man. According to a WHO survey, nearly 70-80% of the world population depends on herbal drugs. It is a fact that many chemicals with complex structures that cannot be chemically synthesized can be conveniently produced in plants.

The production of speciality chemicals by plants is a multibillion industry. The plant cell cultures provide laboratory managed sources for the supply of useful plant products. Although hundreds of new compounds are identified every year in plants, only a few of them are of commercial importance. Attempts are made to produce them in cell culture systems.

A selected list of plant products obtained from plant cell cultures along with their applications is given in Table 42.1.

Shikonine is a dye produced by the cells Lithospermum erythrorhizon on a commercial scale. The other products successfully produced in plant cell cultures include analgistics (codeine) anti­malarial (quinine), muscle relaxants (atropine), drugs to control cardiovascular disorders (digoxin), hypotensives (reserpine), perfumes (jasmine), insecticides (pyrithrins), food sweeteners (stevioside) and anticancer agents (vincristine). Sometimes, the cost of the plant products is unimaginably high. For instance, one kg of vincristine and vinblastine respectively cost $ 3, 500, 00 and $ 1,000,000!

for more information please visit:

http://www.biologydiscussion.com/biotechnology/plant-biotechnology/secondary-metabolites-in-plant-cultures-applications-and-production/10646

Best regards

Plants are the tremendous source for the discovery of new products with medicinal importance in drug development. Today several distinct chemicals derived from plants are important drugs, which are currently used in one or more countries in the world. Secondary metabolites are economically important as drugs, flavor and fragrances, dye and pigments, pesticides, and food additives. Many of the drugs sold today are simple synthetic modifications or copies of the naturally obtained substances. The evolving commercial importance of secondary metabolites has in recent years resulted in a great interest in secondary metabolism, particularly in the possibility of altering the production of bioactive plant metabolites by means of tissue culture technology. Plant cell and tissue culture technologies can be established routinely under sterile conditions from explants, such as plant leaves, stems, roots, and meristems for both the ways for multiplication and extraction of secondary metabolites. In vitro production of secondary metabolite in plant cell suspension cultures has been reported from various medicinal plants, and bioreactors are the key step for their commercial production. Based on this lime light, the present review is aimed to cover phytotherapeutic application and recent advancement for the production of some important plant pharmaceuticals.

Thanks for your reply 

Secondary metabolites can be obtained by utilizing plant tissue culture techniques with high quantities and high purity

Secondary metabolites have complex chemical composition and are produced in response to various forms of stress to perform different physiological tasks in plants. They are used in pharmaceutical industries, cosmetics, dietary supplements, fragrances, flavors, dyes, etc.