Medicinal Plants And Biotechnology

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Plants also express therapeutically important human glycoproteins like protein C, which is an anticoagulant and glucocerebrosidase which is used in replacement therapy (Dixon, 1996). Immunogenic epitopes have been produced in plants using Agrobacterium tumefaciens, for oral immunisation against diarrhoeal diseases.These results open up the use of plant-trangenic systems in immunological therapy. When combined with otherwise therapeutically useful components, some medicinal plants would be much more valuable. One of the possibilities suggested is to combine antioxidants, anticancer compounds and reduction of levels of carcinogens.

        The first generation products in tomatoes with altered ripening characteristics or shelf-life, insect resistant corn, cotton, tobacco, etc., and herbicide resistant cotton and soybean, are now on the market.

        A transgenic tomato plant with a gene from the Hepatitis-B virus and a transgenic alfa alfa (Medicago sativa) with a gene from the cholera bacterium, were among the transgenic plants approved by the United States Department of Agriculture, by 1998. These two transgenics are expected to function as safe and edible vaccines and impart immunity against infection by the two pathogens.

     Transgenic varieties will complicate the issues of characterisation and nomenclature of the new varieties. They also complicate issues of intellectual and other property rights as the host plants may be assignable to one or more specific countries but the the bacterial species used may be world wide in distribution. Taxonomists should be prepared with procedures to handle this complexity before being overwhelmed by large numbers of genetically engineered varieties of crop plants.

CELL, TISSUE AND ORGAN CULTURE

CELL CULTURE

IMMOBILISATION

      The application of genetic engineering techniques and the development of GMOs have thrown up a number of controversies relating to the safety and security of people, livestock and vegetation, and on the ethics of using such science and technology. A wide raging controversy surrounds the GMOs of crop plants and livestock. Though not directly related to the medicinal plants at the moment, the discussions on these issues by Swaminathan (1999) and Leisinger (1999) provide an useful insight into the issues involved. While extreme postures have been taken by biotechnologists on the one hand and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) on the other, the truth lies somewhere in between. Progress is both necessary and inevitable. In fact, the policy of the Government of India is in favour of GMOs of crops. Issues of biosafety and ethics in biotechnology have from near.

        Biotechnology being a vibrant and sensitive area, developments and controversies require a constant monitoring. The following websites offer the latest information on issues of biotechnology:

a) <www.cid.harvard.edu/cibbiotech/homepage/htm>, on the role of agricultural biotechnology in the developing world

b) <http://www.rafi.ca>, on the impact of genetically modified foods on biodiversity; and

c) <http://www.nuffield.org/filelibrary/pdf/gmcrop.pdf>, on ethical and social issues of biotechnology industry.