Abstract
A phytostat to mass culture higher plant cells in liquid medium was described. This apparatus allowed the culture in batch, turbidostat and chemostat of 20 l of cells. Automatic control of cell suspension growth was based on culture turbidity. Changes with time of certain cell characteristics, particularly cell respiration and phospholipid content, indicated that the best time to harvest large amounts of sycamore cells (A. pseudoplatanus L.) in good physiological state was about 2 days before the end of the exponential phase of growth, when the cell density reached 1,000,000 cells/ml of culture.