Conventional Approaches Toward Improvement of Plants for Enhancement of Natural Products Production

Secondary metabolites from plants are an important source of active ingredients used in food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and other industries. Environmental conditions has significant impact on the synthesis of secondary metabolites in plants. In order to synthesize metabolites on an immense scale, continuous efforts must be made. This chapter reviews the techniques for producing natural products using conventional plant breeding and tissue cultures method. The first part of the review highlights the conventional methods of plant breeding and their role in therapeutic plant enhancement. The second part discusses various biotechnological techniques, such as micropropagation, cell culture, and hairy root culture, used to enhance secondary metabolite production. The production of secondary metabolites in plant tissue cultures is influenced by the composition of the culture medium, the source of the explant, light, temperature, etc. Furthermore, this chapter highlights various approaches used to enhance the in vitro biosynthesis of active molecules with high pharmaceutical value. Selection of high yielding cell line, precursor feeding, elicitation, and metabolic engineering are commonly employed techniques that stimulate and increase the synthesis of secondary metabolites.