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Plant tissue and cell culture system may circumvent seasonal and geographic restriction of the plants, and as sources of useful secondary products. Plant cell cultures also provide effective systems for exploring plant physiology and plant biochemistry. The value of the technique of plant tissue and cell culture is that cell and tissue systems can be subjected to direct experimental control.
Cranberry plants (Vaccinium macrocarpon, Ericaceae) growing in outside bogs receive different external environmental stresses. The environmental stresses are divided into biotic stresses (attacked by insects, mites and fungi) and abiotic stresses (physical stresses: light, temperature, and wounding; chemical stresses: nutrient elements, water, and chemicals). At the cellular level, there is no report on responses of the cranberry plants to these environmental stresses.
Flavonoids (anthocyanins and flavonols) are secondary products of plants [1]; and have been found to have important therapeutic values against arterial diseases and cancer because of their antioxidant properties [2, 3]. The accumulation of anthocyanins and flavonols in plants is largely influenced by various environmental stresses.
Description of the Cranberry Plant as a Pigment Source
In cranberry fruits, the anthocyanins are cyanidin and peonidin based chromophores, whereas the flavonols are myricetin and quercetin based chromophores (Figure 1). 
Figure 1: The structural differences between the different types of anthocyanins and flavonols present in cranberry plants. Myricetin and quercetin are flavonols and cyanidin and peonidin are anthocyanins. R represents where the sugar groups are attached to the chromophores.
Cyanidin-3-galactoside, cyanidin-3-arabinoside, peonidin-3-arabinoside, and peonidin-3-galactoside are the four different types of major anthocyanins present in cranberries. The five different flavonols present in cranberries are myricetin-3-arbinoside, myricetin-3-diglactoside, quercetin-3-galactoside, quercetin-3- arabinoside and quercetin-3-rhamnoside [4-7].
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