Plant-based medicines play an important role in all cultures, and have been indispensable in maintaining health and combating diseases. The identification of active principles and their molecular targets from traditional medicine provides an enormous opportunity for drug development. Using modern biotechnology, plants with specific chemical compositions can be mass propagated and genetically improved for the extraction of bulk active pharmaceuticals. Although there has been significant progress in the use of biotechnology, using tissue cultures and genetic transformation to investigate and alter pathways for the biosynthesis of target metabolites, there are many challenges involved in bringing plants from the laboratory to successful commercial cultivation. This book presents the latest advances in the development of medicinal drugs, including topics such as plant tissue cultures, secondary metabolite production, metabolomics, metabolic engineering, bioinformatics and future biotechnological directions.

Downstream Processes for Plant Cell and Tissue Culture

Agrobacterium rhizogenes mediated transformation in medicinal plants: Prospects and challenges
Scutellaria: Biotechnology, Phytochemistry and its Potential as a Commercial Medicinal Crop
Microbial Endophytes: Progress and Challenges
Cannabis sativa L.: Propagation for phytocannabinoids and biotechnology
Epilobium Sp. (Willow Herb): Micropropagation and Production of Secondary Metabolites
Photoelicitation of bioactive secondary metabolites by ultraviolet radiation: mechanisms, strategies and applications
Advances in Microspore culture technology: A biotechnological tool for the improvement of medicinal plants
Implication of Cellular Heterogeneity on Plant Cell Culture Performance
Biosynthetic Potential of hairy roots for production of new natural products
Molecular biology and biotechnology of qunolizidine alkaloid biosynthesis in Leguminosae plants
Metabolomics in medicinal plant research
Antioxidants in Medicinal plants
Metabolic Engineering and Synthetic Biology for the Production of Isoquinoline Alkaloids
Jasmonate-responsive transcription factors: new tools for metabolic engineering and gene discovery
Metabolic Engineering of Plant Cellular Metabolism: Methodologies, Advances and Future Directions
Use of Metabolomics and Transcriptomics to Gain Insights into the Regulation and Biosynthesis of Medicinal Compounds: Hypericum as a Model
Multivariate Analysis of Analytical Chemistry Data and Utility of the KNApSAcK Family Database to Understand Metabolic Diversity in Medicinal Plants
Genomic and Transcriptomic Profiling: Tools for the Quality Production of Plant-Based Medicines.