ABSTRACT
The capacity for plant cell, tissue, and organ cultures to produce and accumulate many of the same valuable chemical compounds as the parent plant in nature has been recognized almost since the inception of
in vitro
technology. The strong and growing demand in today’s marketplace for natural, renewable products has refocused attention on
in vitro
plant materials as potential factories for secondary phytochemical products, and has paved the way for new research exploring secondary product expression
in vitro
. However, commercial significance alone does not drive the research initiatives. The deliberate stimulation of defined chemical products within carefully regulated
in vitro
cultures provides an excellent forum for in-depth investigation of biochemical and metabolic pathways, under highly controlled microenvironmental regimes.
