In addition to plant regeneration, another objective of this work was the establishmen of callus and cell suspension cultures. Friable calluses were induced from leaf segments in the presence of 28.9 uM PIC, and selected for the establishment of cell suspension cultures, since they showed high biomass accumulation regardless the light condition. However, growth kinetics of suspension cultures of P. alata was influenced by light condition. Cultures maintained in the presence of light displayed a shorter exponential phase when compared to cultures maintained in darkness, but no differences in biomass accumulation were observed. Cell supension cultures display much higher division rates than intact plants or calluses, and may be employend for protoplasr isolation, mass clonal propagation, cryopreservation, studies of biosynthetic pathways, and production of medicinal compounds. Although suspension cells are undifferentiated, during the stationary stage some differentiation may occur, leading to the synthesis of secondary metabolites. In addition, some cells are capable of excreting metabolites to the culture medium, allowing recovery of compounds without interfering with cell growth. For example, Balbuena et al.(2009) reported the detection of differebt metabolites in the culture medium of cell sospension sultures or Piper solmsianum, especially at the stationary phase.