Enhancing secondary metabolites (Emphasis on phenolics and antioxidants) in plants through elicitation and metabolomics

Abstract

New discoveries on the benefits of bioactive compounds derived from plants have prompted the modification and enrichment of foods and food components with the aim of promoting health benefits. The process of elicitation is beneficial as it helps trigger physiological modifications and stimulates stress-induced protective responses in plants. This process occurs not only in plant cells but also in human cells and can activate bioactive compounds responsible for defensive strategies which prevent the oxidation that causes neurodegenerative heart diseases and some types of cancer. The aim of this study was to illustrate the numerous elicitors derived from different origins which have the capacity to enhance phenolic and antioxidant properties in plants and shed some light on the importance of plant metabolomics as a powerful tool for finding information on detecting secondary metabolites, which may help in natural product discovery. This paper reviews the literature related to the elicitation process and metabolomics, providing an evaluation of their results. Elicitation, in both biotic and abiotic forms, is an innovative tool which activates and improves the production of secondary metabolites in plants, though some metabolites behave differently. On the other hand, metabolomics provides insight into how these metabolites respond to elicitation. Full exploration of these elicitors in plants will provide academic and scientific information to support the development of functional and nutraceutical foods with the potential to improve the quality of human health and alleviate the effects of prevalent non-communicable diseases.