Production of ginseng and its bioactive components in plant cell culture: Current technological and applied aspects

Ginseng (the root of Panax ginseng CA Mayer) is a valuable oriental herb, w hich has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years, both as a disease-healing drug and a general tonic. The medicinal value of ginseng is now also widely recognized in the west and the world ginseng mar ket is expanding. The current supply of ginseng depends mainly on field cul tivation: which is a slow and laborious process. Plant cell and tissue cult ure methods have been explored as potentially more efficient alternatives f or the mass production of ginseng and its bioactive components. Research in to ginseng cell and tissue cultures started in the early 1960s and commerci al applications have been underway since the late 1980s. The ginseng cell c ulture has continued to attract considerable research and development effor t in recent years as scientists seek to understand and optimize the culture conditions. In this paper, we review recent studies on ginseng cell cultur e processes, focusing on the physiological and bioengineering factors affec ting the productivity of ginseng biomass and useful metabolites (e.g. ginse ng saponin and polysaccharide) and the progress and concerns in large-scale applications. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.