Applications of new technologies in medicinal plant

The global demand for herbal medicine is not only large, but growing. Various technologies have been adopted for enhancing bioactive molecules in medicinal plants. Biotechnological tools are important for the multiplication and genetic enhancement of the medicinal plants by adopting techniques such as in vitro regeneration and genetic transformation. It could also be harnessed for the production of secondary metabolites using plants as bioreactors. The evolving commercial importance of the secondary metabolites has in recent years resulted in a great interest, in secondary metabolism, and particularly in the possibility to alter the production of bioactive metabolites by means of cell culture technology.The principle advantage of this technology is that it may provide continuous, reliable source of plant pharmaceuticals and could be used for the large scale culture of plant cells from which these metabolite can be extracted.