The plant cell reacts to an increased concentration of metals in the environment by various mechanisms. They include an increase in the formation of heat-shock proteins, metallothioneins, phytochelatins, amino acids (cysteine, histidine), organic acids (citric, malic), or secondary metabolites. The latter mechanism is being investi-gated for its possible use in explant cultures for the stimulation of secondary metabolism, which is the source of substances of pharmaceutical importance. The study tested manganese (II) (0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 mM in the medium), cobalt (II), and nickel (II) ions (0, 0.1, 0.5, 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 200, and 500 M-M in the medium) as potential elicitors of coumarin production. At the samé time, toxicity of these metals for the culture was examined by evaluating their effect on growth (characterized by fresh and dry weight of biomass at the end of a two-week cultivation). Cultures were cultivated in the dark and in the light. It has been found that the growth of cultures is not influenced by manganese in concentrations ranging from 0 to 2 mM, then it slightly decreases, at a concentration of 50 mM it is lower by 20 % when cultivated in the dark and by 30 % when cultivated in the light in comparison with the control. Cobalt in concentrations of 0 to 50 jiM does not signifícantly influence the growth of the culture, higher concentrations decrease the biomass yields, more mar-kedly when cultivated in the light (at 500 (iM Co by 60 %, in the dark only by 30 % in comparison with the controls). Nickel in concentrations of 0.1 to 200 |iM does not influence growth, and in a concentration of 500 |iM decreases it by approximately 30 % in comparison with the control both in the light and dark. Production of coumarins was not stimulated by any metal in comparison with the control cultures, only the removal of manganese from the medium in the culture cultivated in the dark increased production by about 15 % versus the control

        Key words: Angelka archangelica L. - suspension culture - growth - coumarins - manganese - cobalt -nickel — sequential injection analysis