Herb-based functional foods: from laboratories to the market

Consumption of alternative herbal folk medicine has had a tremendous increase in the last decade. A number of medicinal plants contain secondary metabolites which have many biologically active compounds. They are used against hepatic fibrosis and heart ischemia-reperfusion and proved to have antioxidant, antithrombosis, antihypertension, antistress, antivirus, antitumour, antiulcer, antidiabetic, antiaging and antiinflammatory activities. Non-availability of quality planting materials, low germination, slow plant growth, disease and pest incidence are the major obstacles in conventional medicinal plant cultivation. In Taiwan, many economically important medicinal plants and herbs are produced using various explant materials by tissue culture technique to meet the increasing demand for their medicinal properties. Rapid multiplication through in vitro tissue culture can be advantageous for the continuous supply throughout the year. We have developed and standardized efficient, simple and rapid tissue culture regeneration protocols of many medicinal plants, optimized the conditions in green house and successfully established the regenerated plantlets in the field for the large scale commercial production. Availability of tissue culture protocol is the first step towards the development of the genetic transformation.

Keywords: Medicinal plant, Tissue culture, Functional foods

Acknowledgement: Thanks to the National Science Council of Taiwan for financial support