Medicinal plant biotechnology: the Apiaceae family as the example of rapid development.

This article reviews the results of research representative of different trends in biotechnological studies of the Apiaceae species. These species are a well-known source of many important herbal products. A number of investigations focus on the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in plant in vitro cultures. There are also numerous reports concerning the methods of plant micropropagation, especially using somatic embryogenesis. The papers dealing with the usage of the enzymatic potential of plant cells cultured in vitro, in biotransformation processes are less copious. Several studies are related to genetic engineering, exploring mainly the possibility of plant transformation with Agrobacterium rhizogenes to obtain hairy root cultures. The present review demonstrates the significance of biotechnological methods in the studies of medicinal plants taking species of the Apiaceae family as an example.