Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018 Oct;102(20):8661-8675.
doi: 10.1007/s00253-018-9279-8. Epub 2018 Aug 11.

Plant cell culture technology in the cosmetics and food industries: current state and future trends

Regine Eibl  1 , Philipp Meier  2 , Irène Stutz  2 , David Schildberger  3 , Tilo Hühn  3 , Dieter Eibl  2
Affiliations
Review

Plant cell culture technology in the cosmetics and food industries: current state and future trends

Regine Eibl et al. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2018 Oct.

Abstract

The production of drugs, cosmetics, and food which are derived from plant cell and tissue cultures has a long tradition. The emerging trend of manufacturing cosmetics and food products in a natural and sustainable manner has brought a new wave in plant cell culture technology over the past 10 years. More than 50 products based on extracts from plant cell cultures have made their way into the cosmetics industry during this time, whereby the majority is produced with plant cell suspension cultures. In addition, the first plant cell culture-based food supplement ingredients, such as Echigena Plus and Teoside 10, are now produced at production scale. In this mini review, we discuss the reasons for and the characteristics as well as the challenges of plant cell culture-based productions for the cosmetics and food industries. It focuses on the current state of the art in this field. In addition, two examples of the latest developments in plant cell culture-based food production are presented, that is, superfood which boosts health and food that can be produced in the lab or at home.

Keywords: Bioreactor; Cellular agriculture; Cosmetic supplement ingredients; Foodstuff and food ingredients; Plant cell culture extracts.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by one of the authors.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Schematic representation of the procedure for the establishment of a DDC-based plant cell suspension culture
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Examples of plant tissue cultures. a Hairy root culture of Ocimum basilicum (the culture was established at the Technical University Dresden, photo by Sibylle Kümmritz). b Somatic embryo culture of Coffea canephora (the culture was established at the Nestlé R&D Centre Tours as presented at the DECHEMA Himmelfahrtstagung 2018 in Magdeburg, Germany, poster contribution)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Schematic diagrams of instrumented bioreactors preferred in commercial production processes with plant cell cultures which generate products for the cosmetics and food industries. a Stirred bioreactor. b Bubble column bioreactor. c Airlift bioreactor. d Wave-mixed bioreactor with 1-D motion
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Main steps of the production of chocolate based on Theobroma cacao suspension cells. a One of the cacao fruits used to induce seven callus culture cell lines from beans. b Established callus culture of the clone ICS-45. c Microscopic picture of T. cacao suspension cells growing in shake flasks (clone ICS-45). d Twenty-L Flexsafe bag with mass propagated T. cacao suspension cells. e T. cacao suspension cells after freeze drying. f Produced cell culture chocolate
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
VTT’s home bioreactor, which was developed in co-operation with designers at the Aaolto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, and which may be applied to produce berry cell culture biomass for the morning-cereal or smoothie, or which can be eaten as supplement in the future (with kind permission of Dr. Heiko Rischer, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd.)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alexandratos N, Bruinsma J (2012) World agriculture towards 2030/2050: the 2012 revision. ESA working paper. In: Food Agric. Organ. United Nations. http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/esa/Global_persepctives/world_ag_.... Accessed 14 May 2018
    1. Apone F, Tito A, Carola A, Arciello S, Tortora A, Filippini L, Monoli I, Cucchiara M, Gibertoni S, Chrispeels MJ, Colucci G. A mixture of peptides and sugars derived from plant cell walls increases plant defense responses to stress and attenuates ageing-associated molecular changes in cultured skin cells. J Biotechnol. 2010;145:367–376. doi: 10.1016/j.jbiotec.2009.11.021. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Barbulova A, Apone F, Colucci G. Plant cell cultures as source of cosmetic active ingredients. Cosmetics. 2014;1:94–104. doi: 10.3390/cosmetics1020094. - DOI
    1. Barbulova A, Tito A, Carola A, Bimonte M, de Laurentis F, DʼAmbrosio P, Apone F, Colucci G (2010) Raspberry stem cell extract to protect skin from inflammation and oxidative stress. Cosmet Toilet 125:38–47
    1. Barney L (2013) DianaPlantSciences creates natural, plant-based products. http://www.barneyassoc.com/documents/dianaplantsciences_lbarney_D2_6_18_.... Accessed 11 May 2018