Treating secondary metabolites in cell cultures of plants with potential usage in the pharmaceutical industry, this volume concentrates on the individual plant species, their distribution, economic importance, conventional propagation and storage of germplasm. Special emphasis is laid on the potential of industrial in vitro production of compounds of medical and pharmaceutical relevance. Three sections deal with (I) micropropagation, immobilization, cryopreservation, bioreactors, production of secondary metabolites; (II) production through cell cultures of antitumor compounds, L-dopa, shikonin, anthraquinine, tropane and morphinan alkaloids, berberine, caffeine, saponines, valeoptriates, rosmarinic acid, cardenolides, etc; (III) distribution, economic importance, conventional propagation, in vitro production of various metabolites in
Cannabis
,
Centaurium
Cinchona
Digitalis
Duboisia
Hypoxis
Lithospermum
Ochrosia
Paeonia
Panax
Papavar
Rehmannia
, and
Rhazya
.