High density cultivation of Panax notoginseng cells in stirred bioreactorsfor the production of ginseng biomass and ginseng saponin

A novel centrifugal impeller bioreactor (Wang SJ, Zhong JJ. A novel centrif ugal impeller bioreactor. I. Fluid circulation, mixing and liquid velocity profiles, Biotechnol. Bioeng. 1996;51:511-519) was used for high-density su spension cultivation of Panax notoginseng cells and its performance was com pared with a conventional turbine reactor and a shake flask. The maximum ce ll density reached 28.9, 26.0 and 22.7 g/l (by dry weight) in the shake fla sk (SF), centrifugal impeller bioreactor (CIB) and turbine reactor (TR), re spectively; and their corresponding biomass productivity was 1103, 900 and 822 mg/(l.day). The total production of ginseng saponin reached about 0.92, 0.80, and 0.49 g/l in the SF, CIB and TR, respectively, and their correspo nding saponin productivity was 34, 29 and 21 mg/(l.day). High cell densitie s (> 20 g/l) of P. notoginseng cells were produced in the stirred reactors. It can be concluded that from the viewpoint of biomass production and sapo nin accumulation, the CIB was better than the TR, and the flask culture res ults can be well reproduced in the GIB. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.