Abstract
Ginsenosides are secondary metabolites that belong to the triterpenoid or saponin group. These occupy a unique place in the pharmaceutical sector, associated with the manufacturing of medicines and dietary supplements. These valuable secondary metabolites are predominantly used for the treatment of nervous and cardiac ailments. The conventional approaches for ginsenoside extraction are time-consuming and not feasible, and thus it has paved the way for the development of various biotechnological approaches, which would ameliorate the production and extraction process. This review delineates the biotechnological tools, such as conventional tissue culture, cell suspension culture, protoplast culture, polyploidy, in vitro mutagenesis, hairy root culture, that have been largely implemented for the enhanced production of ginsenosides. The use of bioreactors to scale up ginsenoside yield is also presented. The main aim of this review is to address the unexplored aspects and limitations of these biotechnological tools, so that a platform for the utilization of novel approaches can be established to further increase the production of ginsenosides in the near future.
Highlights
Ginsenosides, commonly called triterpenoids or ginseng saponins, are secondary metabolites bearing immense medicinal importance, especially in the pharmaceutical sector
There are only a handful of reports available on direct and indirect organogenesis experiments, wherein tissue culture-mediated technologies like direct organogenesis, indirect organogenesis, and somatic embryogenesis have not been extensively investigated for the purpose of ginsenoside production, and the quantitative estimation of ginsenosides via high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) has not been attempted as well
The utilization of additives, elicitors, or precursors in organogenesis experiments and somatic embryogenesis experiments needs to be addressed properly, since these are compounds that can interfere with the signaling pathways that directly or indirectly affect ginsenoside biosynthesis and can enhance their production
Summary
Ginsenosides, commonly called triterpenoids or ginseng saponins, are secondary metabolites bearing immense medicinal importance, especially in the pharmaceutical sector. To address the shortcomings of the conventional mode of metabolite extraction, cutting-edge biotechnological approaches like tissue culture-mediated mass regeneration technologies, Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation, and cell suspension culture coupled with elicitation have been implemented in the past three decades to enhance the production efficiency of ginsenosides in a much refined way. These approaches are highlighted in this review
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