ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Since ancient times, most of the plants in the Lamiaceae family have been mentioned for their pharmaceutical and therapeutical abilities. Usually by mixing with other species or by drinking the extract from boiled plant leafs, they have been used by folk medicine as well as modern medicine until today. As a result, the research con cerning Salvia plants is focused on the medicinal activity of individual substances that can be found in extracts from aerial parts or from roots of the plant. The majority of the active-worthy of investigation substances are products of metabolic pathways that apparently are not involved directly in growth or development, known as secondary metabolites. Those secondary plant products appear to func tion mainly as defences against predators and pathogens. knows as secondary mentabolites, thosesecondary plan produects tp framkmnoqn
As we can see, there is a great interest in using antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti viral and even anticancer substances that are products of “natural factories”, the plant cells. Natural products often have less side effects, when applied in normal dosages and they are more acceptable in a wide range of consumers. The main dis advantage of natural substances is the small quantity that can be extracted from very large quantities of plant parts. Also, some species are difficult to cultivate in a wide range of environmental conditions and if they grow they give a poor product yield. Lining up against those disadvantages, tissue culture and especially liquid culture seem to give a potential to future production of plant secondary metabolites.
