The state of the art in the production of bioactive metabolites from in vitro plant and mushroom cultures

Abstract

In vitro cultivation of plant cells and mushrooms is an alternative to whole plant/mushroom extraction for obtaining valuable secondary metabolites. In recent years, strategies and methodologies for enhancing the production and productivity of useful metabolites in liquid cultures have been demonstrated. Use of new powerful elicitors could effectively induce ginsenoside and taxoid biosynthesis in cell cultures of Taxus chinensis and Panax notoginseng and alter the product heterogeneity of P. notoginseng cells. Two-stage cultivation was another interesting method for hyper-production of ganoderic acid (GA) by liquid fermentation of Ganoderma lucidum, a traditional Chinese medicinal mushroom. Such studies are important to the commercial utilization of plant cells and mushrooms for production of high-value-added bioactive metabolites.