Production of bioactive plant secondary metabolites through in vitro technologies—status and outlook

Abstract

Medicinal plants have been used by mankind since ancient times, and many bioactive plant secondary metabolites are applied nowadays both directly as drugs, and as raw materials for semi-synthetic modifications. However, the structural complexity often thwarts cost-efficient chemical synthesis, and the usually low content in the native plant necessitates the processing of large amounts of field-cultivated raw material. The biotechnological manufacturing of such compounds offers a number of advantages like predictable, stable, and year-round sustainable production, scalability, and easier extraction and purification. Plant cell and tissue culture represents one possible alternative to the extraction of phytochemicals from plant material. Although a broad commercialization of such processes has not yet occurred, ongoing research indicates that plant in vitro systems such as cell suspension cultures, organ cultures, and transgenic hairy roots hold a promising potential as sources for bioactive compounds. Progress in the areas of biosynthetic pathway elucidation and genetic manipulation has expanded the possibilities to utilize plant metabolic engineering and heterologous production in microorganisms. This review aims to summarize recent advances in the in vitro production of high-value plant secondary metabolites of medicinal importance.Key points• Bioactive plant secondary metabolites are important for current and future use in medicine• In vitro production is a sustainable alternative to extraction from plants or costly chemical synthesis• Current research addresses plant cell and tissue culture, metabolic engineering, and heterologous production Graphical abstract

Efficient shoot regeneration of medicinal plant Haplophyllum tuberculatum by direct and indirect organogenesis and genetic fidelity assessment using Inter Simple Sequence Repeats markers

“…Our results indicated that the degree of callus growth from H. tuberculatum immature seeds is moderate profuse to profuse with 2,4-D, while there was only a light callus growth resulting with BAP. This is in agreement with previous research, where optimal callus induction on MS medium was achieved with 2 mg/l 2,4-D ( Wawrosch and Zotchev, 2021 ). Although a high concentration of 2,4-D resulted in profuse callus growth, a high concentration of 2,4-D can decrease regeneration frequency, and calluses tend to remain in the callus proliferation stage.…”

“…Extracts have also demonstrated antifungal and antiviral properties against Fusarium culmorum, Rhizoctonia solani , and tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), having a high concentration in resveratrol kaempferol, myricetin, rutin, quercetin, and rosmarinic acid ( Chandran et al, 2020 ). Thus organ cultures or cell cultures will be a potential source to produce and extract bioactive compounds on an industrial scale ( Chandran et al, 2020 ; Wawrosch and Zotchev, 2021 ).…”

Plant Nutrition for Human Health: A Pictorial Review on Plant Bioactive Compounds for Sustainable Agriculture

“…Enormous plants, mainly medicinal plants, that can produce bioactive secondary metabolites include Chinese medicinal herbs, as reported by El-Ramady et al [86] and in Tables 2 and 3. The production of bioactive plant secondary metabolites is common using in vitro technologies [87,88]. All plant species can form primary metabolites in cells, but secondary metabolites vary by plant species and can be produced through metabolic pathways derived from the primary metabolic pathways.…”

“…Enormous plants, mainly medicinal plants, that can produce bioactive secondary metabolites include Chinese medicinal herbs, as reported by El-Ramady et al [86] and in Tables 2 and 3. The production of bioactive plant secondary metabolites is common using in vitro technologies [87,88]. On the other hand, nutraceuticals have great potential for human health.…”

Hairy roots: An untapped potential for production of plant products

“…The production of a wide array of secondary metabolites have been explored in hairy roots. These include compounds such as alkaloids, anthocyanins (Barba-Espín et al, 2020), flavonoids, ginsenosides, phenolics, stilbenes, lignans, and terpenoids (Wawrosch and Zotchev, 2021). Hairy roots have also been used for the production of protein based products such as vaccines (Skarjinskaia et al, 2013;Massa et al, 2019), monoclonal antibodies (Donini and Marusic, 2019), and therapeutic proteins (Cardon et al, 2019;Zhang et al, 2019b).…”