IMMOBILIZATION OF PLANT CELLS AND ITS APPLICATION TO PIGMENT PRODUCTION.

Cultured cells of Lavandula vera strain L//1//0 4-2154 were found to produce blue pigments whose formation was induced by adding L-cysteine into the nutrient medium. However, it was very difficult to entrap the cultured cells homogeneously under stabilized conditions in gel matrices because of the aggregation of the cells. The presence of a relatively high concentration of CaCl//2 in the medium inhibits the growth of the cells to an appreciable extent but is effective to disperse the cells. After various trials the authors have succeeded in maintaining L. vera cells as a fine suspension in a liquid medium in the presence of 50 mM CaCl//2. Several immobilization methods have been applied to entrap L. vera cells harvested from the CaCl//2-induced fine suspension by the use of natural polysaccharides and synthetic resin prepolymers.