Natural substances in tissue culture media of higher plants

Plant cell and tissue cultures are characterized by the use of isolated parts of plant obtained from an intact plant body and kept on, or in a suitable nutrient medium. This nutrient medium functions as replacement for the cells, tissue, or conductive elements originally neighbouring the explant. The exact conditions required to initiate and sustain plant cells in culture, or to regenerate intact plants from cultured cells, are different for each plant species. The empirical approach has shown that three factors, namely explant choice, medium composi- tion, and control of the physical environment are important in successful cultures. When the completely defined plant culture media did not give the desired results, employing natural substances have beneficial effects on in vitro plant cell and tissue cultures. The composition of different culture media and the effects of natural compounds, including the supernatant and freeze-dried biomass of well-growing algal strains of Mosonmagyarovar Algal Culture Collection (MACC), are presented in this short review.