In vitro production of digitalis purpurea biomass using temporary immersion cultures

Abstract

The annual turnover of the herbal active substances exceeds yearly 10 billion Euros. The biotechnological production of these secondary metabolites leads year round supply of these compounds for the pharmaceutical use and it also helps to some extent to a conservation of natural resources in their countries of origin to avoid wild collections. Furthermore, the pharmaceutical production supports the product safety, constancy of price and quality of the secondary metabolites. During the past years, numerous different bioreactor types have been set up allowing a biotechnological production of secondary compounds in plants and the temporary immersion system is one among them which is considered as the simplest method. In this article, we have discussed the production of Digitalis purpurea shoot biomass using temporary immersion system.