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Review
. 2022 Feb 5;11(3):439.
doi: 10.3390/plants11030439.

Root Cultures, a Boon for the Production of Valuable Compounds: A Comparative Review

Masooma Jawad Hussain  1 , Yawar Abbas  1 , Naushaba Nazli  1 , Sara Fatima  1 , Samantha Drouet  2 , Christophe Hano  2 , Bilal Haider Abbasi  1
Affiliations
Review

Root Cultures, a Boon for the Production of Valuable Compounds: A Comparative Review

Masooma Jawad Hussain et al. Plants (Basel). .

Abstract

Medicinal plants are an inevitable source of pharmaceutical drugs and most of the world population depends on these plants for health benefits. The increasing global demand for bioactive compounds from medicinal plants has posed a great threat to their existence due to overexploitation. Adventitious root and hairy root culture systems are an alternative approach to the conventional method for mass production of valuable compounds from medicinal plants owing to their rapid growth, biosynthetic and genetic stability. The main purpose of this review is to investigate the recent scientific research published worldwide on the application of adventitious and hairy root cultures to produce valuable compounds from medicinal plants. Furthermore, a comparison of adventitious root vs. hairy root cultures to produce valuable compounds has also been discussed. Various aspects such as medium composition, carbon source, pH, amount of macronutrients, optimization strategy, scale-up cultures, and use of biotic abiotic and nano-elicitors at various concentrations are the topic of discussion in this review. Several studies on adventitious and hairy root cultures of Polygonum multiflorum¸ Withania somnifera¸ Echinacea purpurea and Ajuga bracteosa have been discussed in detail which highlights the importance of elicitation strategies and bioreactor system, presenting commercial applications.

Keywords: adventitious root culture; bioreactor; elicitation strategy; hairy root culture; medicinal plants.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
This figure shows a brief comparison between adventitious and hairy root culture and the process of their induction: (a) comparison between hairy root culture and adventitious root culture; (b) flowchart of hairy root induction; (c) flowchart of adventitious root culture.
Figure 1
Figure 1
This figure shows a brief comparison between adventitious and hairy root culture and the process of their induction: (a) comparison between hairy root culture and adventitious root culture; (b) flowchart of hairy root induction; (c) flowchart of adventitious root culture.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Optimization strategies to improve secondary metabolite production.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Elicitation, as a powerful means to improve the production of high-valued compounds.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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