Plant extracts-importance in sustainable agriculture

Abstract

Plants due to the high content of various bioactive compounds are the main raw material for production of valuable, and useful bio-products (e.g., food, cosmetics, medicines, biostimulants, biopesticides, and feed). Different plant parts, for instance: seeds, fruits, flowers, stems, leaves, and roots can be used for their man-ufacture. Nowadays, there is a clear need to develop new, effi-cient, and environmentally safe methods of stimulation of plant, growth and crop protection. Plant-based extracts are new, natural, and multi-compounds products that could be used for these pur-poses. They possess antifungal, antimicrobial, antiparasitic, antiprotozoal, antioxidant, medicinal, aromatic, and anti-inflam-matory properties. This group of natural products has the potential to become a new generation of bio-products suitable for use in sustainable agriculture. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the literature describing the impact of plant-derived extracts/biostimulants (PDBs) on crops grown in controlled, and real conditions as well as under various abiotic and biotic stresses; the extraction methods used to obtain PDBs, and the specific con-stituents responsible for their biostimulating activity. The application of these bio-products could be beneficial for sustainable pro-duction, due to several advantages, such as low toxicity to humans and the environment, enhanced resistance of cultivated plants to biotic and abiotic stress, increased yields and quality of crops, as well as the reduction in the use of mineral fertilisers and pesti-cides. However, deeper cooperation between industrial and academic research is required to accelerate the development of new environmentally safe solutions for future agriculture.