Recent progress in plant cell culture : Research on the production of useful plant metabolites in Japan.

CONCLUSIONS: Commercial application of plant cell cultures for the production of useful metabolites on a large scale has not yet been realized. However, some recently published papers and patents seem very attractive for industrial use because their results and techniques are apparently applicable to a large-scale production of metabolites. The author believes that commercial success using plant tissue cultures will be realized in the near future with advanced techniques if product selection is determined by economic and political principles.In 1982, the 5th International Congress of Plant Tissue and Cell Culture will be held in Japan and this undoubtedly will encourage research activity in our country.