Bioindustrial and biopharmaceutical products produced in plants

Over the past several years there have been many advances in plant biotechnology that have led to the successful commercialization of agricultural products for crop improvement. Plant biotechnology is now being considered as a too] to produce non-food products such as biopharmaceuticals and bioindustrial products. This chapter reviews the status of the field with particular emphasis on different plant systems. Key factors such as transformation, expression, growth, harvest, transport, storage, processing, and purification of the plant material are included. The chapter also evaluates the characteristics of different systems and their utility for different types of products. While no one system stands out as the ideal platform, this chapter does point to systems that have broader appeal and speculates as to future platforms and utilities. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc.