Production of useful compounds and appliation of porpagation in Korean medicinal plants

Ailanthus altissima, Chamaecyparis obtuse, Citrus junos, Condonopsis lanceolata, Ginkgo biloba, Hovenia dulcis, Mentha spicata, Orostachys japonicas, and Scopolia parviflora has been used widely in Korean herbal medicines. They could provide for functional foods, treatment for specific diseases, and promoting human health. The origins of herbal medicines in Korea were described by the Korean Pharmacopoeia Tenth Edition (2012). Several species of medicines have been cultivated national widely in Korea. However, there were many problems if environmental factors could not be fixed in cultivation and analyzing useful compounds (alkaloids, terpenoids, phenolic compounds or others) from wild collecting plant materials. So, in vitro tissue cultures (callus, adventitious root, multiple shoot, or somatic embryo), aboitic/biotic elicitors, bioreactor, and single cell cloning has been manipulated for enhanced metabolite productions and rapid propagation in Korean medicinal plants. For example, the hairy roots or adventitious roots of in vitro cultures have proven efficient systems for the production of secondary metabolites that are normally biosynthesized in roots. Therefore, Korean medicinal plants were used to introduce and to emphasize about production of useful compounds and application of propagation of Korean medicinal plants in this report.

Reference: Korea Food & Drug Administration. The Korean Pharmacopoeia 10th edition. The KFDA Notification No. 2012 – 129. 2012. Dec 27th.

Acknowledgement: This work was supported by Development of Basic Technologies for the Domestic Cultivation of Herbal Medicine Resources (K14417), the Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (KIOM) to the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (MSIP), and Republic of Korea.