Abstract: Cell plating clone technique was employed to screen clone lines with high yield of oligosaccharins from culture cells of Panax ginseng C. A. Mey. Near 300 clone lines were obtained. The results from some clone lines analysed implied that these clone lines were significantly different in cell growth rate, oligosaccharins content and yield. Furthermore, there was a distinct correlation between oligosaccharins productivity and cell growth. A more stable high-yield oligosaccharin clone line PG-180 had been selected according to the characteristics of growth rate, oligosaccharin yield and peroxidases isozyme patterns during successive subculturing of 11 generations of clone lines. The mean growth rate of clone line PG-180 was 0. 495 g dry wt/L · d, and was 1.39 folds higher than to the original strain. Its mean content and yield of oligosaccharins were 14. 69 % dry wt and 2.183 g/L, which were 65 % and 132% respectively higher than those of the original strain. In comparing the time course of cell suspension culture between clone line PG-180 and the original strain, the optimal period for high oligosaccharin production from P. ginseng culture cells was approximately three weeks.

Key words: Panax ginseng, Cell clone, Clone lines, Oligosaccharins, Peroxidase Isozyme