20 medicinal plant species used for the production of secondary metabolites
By: Kiranjeet Kaur
Tags: Useful Medicinal Plants, Biotechnology, Secondary Metabolites, Medicinal Plants, Plant Tissue Culture

20 medicinal plant species used for the production of secondary metabolites

Plants play a dominant role in the introduction of new therapeutics agents and also drugs from the higher plants continue to occupy an important niche in modern medicine. Pharmaceuticals companies depend largely upon materials procured from naturally occurring strands that are being rapidly depleted because of the use of parts like roots, barks, wood, stem, and the whole plant in the case of herbs. This poses a definite threat to the genetic stocks and the diversity of medicinal plants.

Plant tissue culture is an alternative method of propagation and is being used widely for the commercial propagation of a large number of plant species, including many medicinal plants.

For some years, there has been great interest in the exploitation of plant cell cultures to produce fine chemicals. Plant material enriched in secondary metabolites is produced in tissue culture under conditions that organogenically produce a proliferation of shoots and leafy materials and harvesting the leafy material and shoots while in a green, actively -growing, organized, ‘hairy’ root cultured following the genetic transformation of plants with Agrobacterium rhizogenes may revolutionize certain areas of plant cell biotechnology for the production of plant secondary metabolites.

Plants like Origanum vulgare, Saussurea obvallata, Ocimum sanctum, Cedrus deodara, Cydnodon dactylon, Aegle marmelos, Juniperus communis, Musa paradissica, and Ficus religiosa are some of the examples of medicinal plants of immense importance propagated through tissue culture.

For particular interest in plant materials that produce alkaloids, especially material from poppy that will yield economically attractive levels of morphinan alkaloids, particularly thebaine.

Plant species and secondary metabolites obtained from them using Tissue Culture Techniques and their Activity:

1.Catharanthus roseus Product Activity

Antileulkaemic Antiarrhythmic Tranquilizer

2.Chrysanthemum cinerariafolium Product

Pyrethrin

Activity

Insecticide ( for grain storage)

3. Cinchona officinalis Product

Quinine

Activity

Antimalarial

4. Digitalis lanata

Product

Digoxill Reserpine

Activity

Cardiac tonic Hypotensive

5. Dioscorea deltoidea

Product

Diosgenin

Activity

Antifertility

6. Jasminum sp.

Product

Jasmine

Activity

Perfume

7. Papaver somniferum Product

Morphine

Activity 8. Papaver bracteatum Product

Codeine

Activity

Analgesic

9. Thaumatococcus danielli

Product

Thaumatin

Activity

Sweetener

10.Datura stramonium

Product

Scopolamine

Activity

Antihypertension

11. Atropa belladanna

Product

Atropine

Activity

Blocking of cholinergic

12. Coptis japonica

Product

Berberine

Activity

Antibacterial

13. Campatotheca accminata

Product

Camptothecin

Activity

Anticancer

14. Nicotiana tabacum

Product

Nicotine Glutathione Ubiquinone

Activity

Ganglion blocker Cardiovascular agent

15. Coleus blumei

Product

Rosamarinic acid

Activity

Spice Antioxidant

Activity 16. Morinda citrifolia

Product

Anthraquinones

Activity

Laxatives Dyes

Activity 17. Glycyrrhiza glabra

Product

Glycyrrhizin

18. Cephalotaxus harringtonia

Product

Cephalotaxine

Activity

Antitumor

19. Lithospermum erythrorhizon

Product

Shikonin

Activity

Dye Pharmaceuticals

Activity 20. Stevia rebaudiana

Product

Stevioside

Activity

Sweetener

Plants can be regenerated and mass propagated in vitro either by shoot morphogenesis or somatic embryogenesis.

Many traditional medicinal herbs have been successfully regenerated and various components are extracted from Taxol, a complex diterpene alkaloid found in the bark of Taxus tree, Latex from the opium poppy, primary bioactive constituents of ginseng are ginsenosides, a group of triterpenoid saponins, Berberine is an isoquinoline alkaloid found in roots of Coptis japonica, Danshen ( Salvia miltiorrhiza ), a well known traditional;l medicine, Podophyllotoxin is an antitumor aryltetralin lignan found in Podophyllum peltatum possess tremendous importance to the pharmaceutical industry.