Tissue Culture of Medicinal Plants

The increasing demand for pharmaceutically important metabolites from plants has shifted the focus of research toward plant tissue culture. Micropropagation has become vital for the rapid multiplication of medicinal plants for the production of essential metabolites and pharmaceutically important compounds. Callus and cell suspension cultures, shoot organogenesis, hairy root culture, somatic embryogenesis and synthetic seed technology are methods which are used for directly culture of desired plants or tissues in a limited space with appropriate use of synthetic medium and conditions. This chapter demonstrated the basic needs of physical and chemical factors for pharmaceutically important plants. Tissue culture medium is very critical as it provides all the necessary nutrients and plant growth regulators to grow and produce the desired compounds. Apart from the medium composition, genotype and explant are critical to achieve the desired metabolite components. A suitable tissue culture method is always required to get the desired compounds.