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Review
. 2023;153(3):447-458.
doi: 10.1007/s11240-023-02485-8. Epub 2023 Mar 20.

Methyl jasmonate and salicylic acid as powerful elicitors for enhancing the production of secondary metabolites in medicinal plants: an updated review

Rajendran Jeyasri  1 , Pandiyan Muthuramalingam  2   3 , Kannan Karthick  1 , Hyunsuk Shin  2   3 , Sung Hwan Choi  2   3 , Manikandan Ramesh  1
Affiliations
Review

Methyl jasmonate and salicylic acid as powerful elicitors for enhancing the production of secondary metabolites in medicinal plants: an updated review

Rajendran Jeyasri et al. Plant Cell Tissue Organ Cult. 2023.

Abstract

Plant secondary metabolites are bioactive scaffolds that are crucial for plant survival in the environment and to maintain a defense mechanism from predators. These compounds are generally present in plants at a minimal level and interestingly, they are found to have a wide variety of therapeutic values for humans. Several medicinal plants are used for pharmaceutical purposes due to their affordability, fewer adverse effects, and vital role in traditional remedies. Owing to this reason, these plants are exploited at a high range worldwide and therefore many medicinal plants are on the threatened list. There is a need of the hour to tackle this major problem, one effective approach called elicitation can be used to enhance the level of existing and novel plant bioactive compounds using different types of elicitors namely biotic and abiotic. This process can be generally achieved by in vitro and in vivo experiments. The current comprehensive review provides an overview of biotic and abiotic elicitation strategies used in medicinal plants, as well as their effects on secondary metabolites enhancement. Further, this review mainly deals with the enhancement of biomass and biosynthesis of different bioactive compounds by methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and salicylic acid (SA) as elicitors of wide medicinal plants in in vitro by using different cultures. The present review was suggested as a significant groundwork for peers working with medicinal plants by applying elicitation strategies along with advanced biotechnological approaches.

Keywords: Bioactive compounds; Elicitors; Medicinal plants; Methyl jasmonate; Salicylic acid.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A possible mechanism of the elicitation process. detailed description needed. SAR - Systemic acquired resistance; ISR - induced systemic resistance
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Enhancement of biomass through elicitation process in B. monnieri
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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