Anthocyanin production by plant cell cultures on media based on milk whey.

Selected callus cultures ofAjuga reptans produce anthocyanins in the dark on Murashige-Skoog medium with sucrose as carbon source. From these cultures we could isolate, by a two-stage selection procedure, new lines, which produce anthocyanins on media based on milk whey with lactose as the only carbon source. The anthocyanin production of the cell lines on milk whey is comparable with the production of the cell lines on MS-medium. Our results prove that it is possible to lower medium costs of plant cell culture by using cheap raw materials.