PRODUCTION OF PHENOLIC-COMPOUNDS BY CULTURED PLANT-CELLS

Plants produce a variety of important chemicals including phenolic compounds. Plant cell cultures offer an alternative to whole plants as a source of these compounds. Its main advantage is that it allows for controllable and reliable manufacture of the phytochemicals in any location. The main constraint of using plant cell cultures to produce phytochemicals is low productivity. Fortunately, plant cell culture is quite amenable to manipulation. Several approaches including optimization of culture media and culture conditions, elicitation, biotransformation, two stage culture, two phase culture, immobilization, genetic selection, and genetic manipulation have been separately found to be able to increase productivity. Strategies comprising of a combination of these approaches together with optimal fermentor design, and downstream processing should one day permit phytochemicals to be produced from cultured cells in industrial scale at reasonable costs.