Impact of Abiotic Elicitors on In vitro Production of Plant Secondary Metabolites: A Review

Abstract

A wide variety of secondary metabolites are synthesized from primary metabolites by plants which are used for the defense purpose. The secondary metabolites had a great scope in the pharmaceuticals, food additives, flavors, and industrial applications. The secondary metabolites are accumulated in the plant body due to stress. The production of plant secondary metabolites by cultivation of plants and chemical synthesis are important agronomic and industrial objectives. The chemical synthesis in most cases has not been economically feasible. The alternative promising option is in vitro culture, which represents a potential source of bioactive compounds, but very few cultures synthesize secondary metabolites in comparison to those produced in intact plants. Elicitor is the one of the stress agent that enhances the production of secondary metabolites in a particular tissue, organs and cells. Elicitors are classified into biotic and abiotic based on their nature. In recent years the use of elicitors in the plant tissue culture has opened a new path for the production of secondary metabolite compounds. Abiotic elicitors are of non-biological origin, includes metals, light, osmotic, drought, salinity, thermal and hormonal elicitors. Abiotic elicitors have different effects on the cellular processes in the plant system, such as growth, photosynthesis, carbon partitioning, carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, osmotic homeostasis, protein synthesis, and gene expression. The present review deals with the effects of different abiotic elicitors on the production of secondary metabolites from in vitro culture.