Table 1.

Comparison of advantages and disadvantages of plant culture types.

	Whole plant	Cell suspension culture	Hairy roots
Secondary metabolite production		Often only with elicitation	Comparable to whole plants (esp. roots) without elicitation
Growth rate	Slow	Fast (days)	Fast (days)
Genetic and biochemical stability	Stable	Unstable	Stable (demonstrated over 10 years stability)
Metabolic engineering	Yes, but can be difficult in some cases	Yes	Yes
Scale up potential	Restricted to agricultural lands, climate zones, seasons, and impacted by environmental stressors	Yes	Yes
Cost	Cheap	Expensive	Expensive