Abstract:

This paper deals with the growth and metabolism characteristics of Panax ginseng cells in a 2.4-L stirring tank bioreactor.The results show that the duration of the 3 phases during the culture of cell suspension is related to the inoculum size,the initial nutrient concentration,the feeding of nutrients and the culture conditions such as tern.perature and dissolved oxygen,that the maximum cell yield reaches about 1 2 g/L for batch culture or 35 g/L for fed.batch culture in dry weight,that the saponin content of ceils quicklY increases in the bloom phase and keeps on in.creasing until the early stage of the declining phase,with a maximum saponin content of about 60～70 g/kg in dry weight,that the conductance value of cell suspension decreases from more than 8000 μS to less than 600 μS with the growth of cells,but increases when the cells autolyze,and that part of cells turns red in the later culture.which has no apparent effect on the saponin content.It thus concluded that the conductance can be used as one of the factors to estimate the growing state and can help guide the controlling and ending of the cuhure.Moreover,he harvest time of cells should be controlled in the early stage of the declining phase.

Key words: Panax ginseng, cell culture, metabolism, saponin, bioreactor