In vitro conservation and propagation of medicinal plants

Abstract

In recent years the quest for longevity and an improved quality of life has ventured into the realm of natural therapeutics, resulting in a wider acceptance of plant-based medicine in the Western world. This increased interest in natural remedies has also brought about the great challenge of maintaining a balance between the demand of expanding markets for plant-based medicines and the need to protect medicinal biodiversity. The development of effective cultivation technologies that define plant yield in terms of both biomass and medicinally active phytochemicals is therefore extremely important for long-term conservation of medicinal plants and their sustainable use. In vitro culture offers many advantages for the creation of germplasm banks of living, growing medicinal plant tissues, mass-propagation, and long-term storage in a suspended physiological state. This review describes some of the challenges and approaches of this rapidly growing discipline. The Plant Cell Technology Laboratory at the University of Guelph maintains a living collection of medicinal and endangered species collected over the last 4 years as part of an international interdisciplinary research collaboration.