Saponin production in cell suspension cultures of Panax ginseng.

Two high saponin-producing cell lines were selected from the original callus induced in 1967 and maintained in good state. For saponin production and growth in two cell lines, the comparison of static and suspension cultures, static cultures in the dark or in the light and rotary or reciprocal shaking cultures were made in detail. It was shown that the growth in rotary shaking cultures were 1.8 times higher than in reciprocal cultures, while the saponin production was almost the same, and the most effective hormonal condition was the combination of indole-3-butyric acid with kinetin. The saponin content per fresh weight was almost the same as that of the crude drug, whereas that per dry weight was 4 times higher.