Tissue Culture Technology of Chinese Medicinal Plant Resources in Taiwan and Their Sustainable Utilization

There has been a renewed interest in the use of herbal medicines throughout the world due to toxicities and health hazards associated with synthetic drugs and antibiotics. About 85% of traditional medicines involve the use of plant extracts However, a large number of medicinal plants still remain to be investigated for their possible pharmacological values. Majority of the pharmaceutical industries harness wildly growing plant populations, for the supply of raw materials for extraction of medicinally important compounds. Many of the medicinal plants are severely threatened owning to illicit and indiscriminate collection and destruction of natural habitats. Advanced biotechnological methods of culturing plant cells and tissues provide alternative means for rapid propagation and conservation of rare and endangered and/or commercially important medicinal plants. The present paper reviews the work carried out in our group in Taiwan on in vitro propagation of Pinellia ternata, somatic embryogenesis in Corydalis yanhusuo and production of secondary plant metabolites from callus of Salvia miltiorrhiza and cell suspension cultures of Dioscorea doryophora.