ABSTRACT
Because plant secondary compounds are often produced only in small quantities in a particular type of cells of rare plant species, it is not always feasible to isolate secondary compounds from intact plants. Plant cell culture can be an alternative way to produce these compounds continuously under artificially controlled conditions. In particular, the production of pharmaceutically important plant metabolites has been a target for practical application of plant cell culture for the last few decades. Although not all attempts at practical production have been fully successful so far, several compounds, i.e., shikonin, berberine, and ginseng saponins, have been commercially produced from in vitro cell cultures.
