Production of bioactive compounds from shoot cultures of endangered and commercially important medicinal plants of himalayas

Plant cell culture technologies have made possible the production of a wide variety of pharmaceuticals such as alkaloids, terpenoids, steroids, saponins, monoterpenes, flavonoids and amino acids. The standardization of technologies for the production of plant metabolites through cell cultures help in understanding the biology of their biosynthesis and accumulation. Various factors such as physical, chemical, nutritional and genetic influence the production of metabolites in plant cell cultures. The controlled production of plant metabolites through cell cultures provides a suitable alternative not only in relieving pressure from natural habitats of plant species but also provides conditions suitable for year round production of metabolites. The production of plant metabolites has been enhanced by exposing the cultured cells to biotic and abiotic elicitors. Off late, the induction of hairy roots has been found suitable in the production of metabolites synthesized in various parts of plants. Though the production of plant metabolites has been tried for the last many years yet the success rate in terms of number of metabolites produced on a commercial scale has been low. The lack of proper understanding about the biology of biosynthesis of plant metabolites has been major stumbling block, in addition to poor amenability of medicinal and aromatic plant species to in vitro conditions. Continuous efforts are required to be made in up scaling the production of metabolites on large scale. Least attention has been given towards working out the cost effectiveness of metabolite production through cell cultures. Molecular events regulating the biosynthesis and accumulation of metabolites need be understood by selecting plant-metabolite systems, which are readily amenable to in vitro conditions coupled with recent advances in genomics technologies.