Biotechnological strategies for production of plants and secondary metabolites of pharmaceutical interest

Biotechnological approaches are of increasing application and use for medic inal plants and secondary metabolite production. Micropropagation allows th e production of pathogen-free plants with uniform quality for agronomic cul tures and also for germplasm conservation. Plant in vitro culture allows th e production of secondary metabolites under controlled culture conditions. Two types of in vitro cultures are currently used for secondary metabolite production: dedifferentiated cultures (callus and suspension cultures) and differentiated cultures (transformed roots and shoots). The former tends to accumulate secondary metabolites only in small amount compared to the whol e plant. The approaches used for increasing the production of secondary met abolites include optimization of growth and production culture media, as we ll as elicitation and metabolic engineering.