Abstract: Aastract Preliminary identification of medicinal compounds in the calluses from P. notoginseng, P. ginseng and P. quinquefolium was carried out by TLC. The results demonstrated that the calluses had the potency to synthesize saponin, they also contained the main saponins Rb1 and Rg1. The content of total saponin in the notogin-eng-callus was higher than those in calluses although the growth of notoginseng-callus was lower than ginseng-callus but higher than quinquefolium-callus. Specifically, the notoginseng-callus contained saponin Rh1 which is an anticancer. The results of cell suspension culture of above three plants was similar to those of callus cultures but the growth confirmed increase. In the cell suspension culture of notogiincng, production of saponin proceeded almost in parallel with the cell growth. The optimum time of harvest was culture 30 days. Oligosaccharins as an clicitor not only induced saponin formation but also promoted cell growth, optimum oligosaccharins concentration was about 1.25 ppm. From above studies, the increased dry weight of suspension cell of notoginseng was 178.0 mg and this was up to four times as many as that in original culture callus. The saponin yield in suspension cell reached as high as 20.6 mg which was up to 8.5 times as that of original culture callus.

Key words: Panax notoginseng