A review, with referencesPlants have provided some of our most important pharmaceuticals and are a continuing source of novel bioactive mols. for drug development.Cell suspension cultures of higher plants are a complementary source of novel chem. with significant advantages over whole plants, including plasticity of expression and re-accessibility.With an emphasis on recent progress, the use of plant cell cultures for both new lead discovery and as a route to the production of known bioactives will be described.Developments in strategies that can be applied to facilitate future success in the area are discussed.