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Article: Medicinal roots. (spectrum).(commercial tissue culture)
- Article from:
- Ecos
- Article date:
- October 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 CSIRO Publishing. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A disease of plants could help scientists produce remedies for human ailments. `Hairy root', occurs when the soil bacterium, Agrobacterium rhizogenes, infects wounded plant cells, triggering the production of a malignant mass of fine roots. In nature, this leads to stunted plants. But in the laboratory, hairy roots can be harnessed to produce plant extracts with nutriceutical and pharmaceutical value.
Dr Philip Franks of Food Science Australia, and his colleagues in the CRC for Bioproducts, are investigating the use of hairy roots to mass-produce the active ingredients found in herbal medicines such as echinacea, ginseng and gynostemma. By introducing A. ...