Effect of Environment on Secondary Metabolism of Medicinal Plants
Journal Title: Open Access Journal of Environmental and Soil Sciences - Year 2019, Vol 2, Issue 1
Abstract
Medicinal plants constitute main resource base of almost all the traditional healthcare systems. Most of the herbal drugs produced currently in majority of the developing countries lack proper quality specification and standards. Herbal drugs used in traditional medicine may contain a single herb or combinations of several different herbs believed to have complementary and/ or synergistic effects. Both the raw drugs and the finished herbal products manufactured contain complex mixtures of organic compounds, such as fatty acids, sterols, alkaloids, flavonoids, polyphenols, glycosides, saponins, tannins, terpenes etc. The quality of the finished product is based on the quality of the raw materials, which is again depends on mineral composition of soil, geographical area etc. As many as 35% of the medicinal plants used in Indian systems of medicine are highly cross pollinated which indicate the existence of a wide range of genetic variability in the populations of these medicinal plant species which in turn reflected in the variations in the composition of secondary metabolites. Ecological and edaphic as well as seasonal variations also cause changes in the chemical composition of medicinal plants. These facts have to be considered while developing quality parameters standards of medicinal plants and their finished products. While in food plants our main interest is the carbohydrate/ sugars, proteins, fats and other vitamins, in medicinal plants we look for therapeutically useful chemicals which are generally termed as secondary metabolites which are not that essential for the normal growth and development of the plants/organisms. Plants synthesize these compounds to protect themselves i.e. to adjust, adapt or defend/offend, from the hostile organisms or diseases or the environment. SMs that are useful in medicine are mostly polyphenols, alkaloids, glycosides, terpenes, flavonoids, coumarins, tannins etc. The production of secondary metabolites although controlled by genes but their specific expression is greatly influenced by various factors including biotic and abiotic environments such as climate and edaphic factors or other associated living organisms.
Authors and Affiliations
AK Mohiuddin
Keywords
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- EP ID EP573134
- DOI 10.32474/OAJESS.2019.02.000126
- Views 73
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