Plant cell tissue culture: A potential source of chemicals

Technical Report · Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1987

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5938126· OSTI ID:5938126

Scott, C. D.; Dougall, D. K.

Higher plants produce many industrially important products. Among these are drugs and medicinal chemicals, essential oils and flavors, vegetable oils and fats, fine and specialty chemicals, and even some commodity chemicals. Although, currently, whole-plant extraction is the primary means of harvesting these materials, the advent of plant cell tissue culture could be a much more effective method of producing many types of phytochemicals. The use of immobilized plant cells in an advanced bioreactor configuration with excretion of the product into the reactor medium may represent the most straightforward way of commercializing such techniques for lower-value chemicals. Important research and development opportunities in this area include screening for plant cultures for nonmedical, lower-value chemicals; understanding and controlling plant cell physiology and biochemistry; optimizing effective immobilization methods; developing more efficient bioreactor concepts; and perfecting product extraction and purification techniques. 62 refs., 2 figs.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 5938126
• Report Number(s): ORNL/TM-10521; ON: DE88000036
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products. Original copy available until stock is exhausted
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
CHEMICAL FEEDSTOCKS
BIOSYNTHESIS
TISSUE CULTURES
BIOCONVERSION
BIOREACTORS
CELL CULTURES
FUELS
LATEX
LIPIDS
OPTIMIZATION
ORGANIC ACIDS
PLANT CELLS
SUSPENSIONS
TERPENES
DISPERSIONS
ELASTOMERS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC POLYMERS
POLYMERS
RUBBERS
SYNTHESIS
140504* - Solar Energy Conversion- Biomass Production & Conversion- (-1989)