Collaboration of hairy root culture and scale-up strategies for enhancing the biosynthesis of medicinal and defensive alkaloids in Papaver sp.

The Papaver genus is famous for its ability to biosynthesize a wide variety of secondary metabolites, including benzylisoquinoline alkaloids (BIAs) which have been prescribed to treat several health issues, ranging from cough to cancer. Plus, they have been evidenced to be powerful antioxidants scavenging free radical that are synthesized and accumulated when plants are striving to relieve biotic and abiotic stresses. Morphine, codeine, thebaine, noscapine, papaverine, and sanguinarine are the most well-known BIAs. The biosynthesis of BIAs is limited to organized tissues, and because the content of BIAs in these tissues is relatively low, the use of differentiated organ culture, hairy root culture, is drown much more attention. Interestingly, the biosynthetic capacity of the hairy root culture is higher than that of native plants, making them an appropriate platform for in vitro BIA production. One of the most attractive options for improving BIAs accumulation in hairy roots for both modest and massive production is to adopt biotechnological strategies. Regarding the latter, however, the bioreactor-based production of plant bioactive compounds is preceded by optimization of some factors related to machinery and culture medium. The purpose of this review is to supply comprehensive information about current and innovative biotechnological approaches which have been employed or have the potential to be applied for elevating BIA production in the Papaver hairy root culture as well as their importance from the medicinal and defensive perspectives.