Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Plants Chemical Pharmaceutical Factories
Plants Chemical Pharmaceutical Factories
V.P.S. Shekhawat
Production of chemicals
Drugs Antioxidants Flavors Fragrance Dyes Insecticides and Pheromones
Some Facts !
13000 plants species 25% of materia medica is derived from plants 100,000 compounds are known today 4000 are added every year Largest proportion of these compound consists of terpenoids (~30%), followed by alkaloid (~20%)
Secondary metabolites !
These compounds are not involved in the basic metabolic processes of the living cells, but are involved in the interaction of the living cells, but are involved in the interaction of the producing organism with its environment.
Production of Phytochemicals
Total chemical synthesis Extraction and purification from plant material Partial chemical synthesis
Sources
Wild plant resources Cultivation of medicinal plants by conventional farming
Plant Cell Cultures Transgenic microorganisms Transgenic plants or plant cell cultures Isolated enzymes
Advantages
Production can be more reliable, simpler and Predictable Easy Isolation Interfering compounds can be avoided To test various enhancement treatments
Metabolic Engineering
Metabolic engineering involves the targeted and purposeful alteration of metabolic pathways found in an organism to achieve better understanding and use of cellular pathways for chemical transformation, energy transduction, and supra-molecular assembly (Lessard,1996).