Production of phytochemicals in plant cell bioreactors

Plant cell culture provides a viable alternative over whole plant cultivation for the production of useful phytochemicals. In order to successfully cultivate the plant cells at large scale, some engineering parameters such as cell aggregation, mixing, aeration and shear sensitivity are taken into account for selection of a suitable bioreactor. Increased productivity in a bioreactor can be achieved by selection of a proper cultivation strategy (batch, fed-batch, two-stage, etc.), feeding of metabolic precursors and extraction of intracellular metabolites. Proper understanding and rigorous analysis of these parameters would pave the way towards the successful commercialization of plant cell bioprocesses.