Utility of Aromatic Plants for the Biotechnological Production of Sustainable Chemical and Pharmaceutical Feedstocks

Abstract

Currently, transportation fuels and many platform chemicals are derived primarily from petroleum. The use of this finite resource contributes substantially to the dangerous build-up of greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere, which has led to an increasing demand for sustainably produced fuels and chemicals. Aromatic plants accumulate terpenoids and phenylpropanoids with physicochemical properties similar to those of petrochemical feedstocks. They are also a source of bioactive compounds used by the agrochemical and pharmaceutical industries. Recent successes with engineering the terpenoid pathway indicate that aromatic plants have the potential to play an important role in providing chemical and pharmaceutical feedstocks from renewable sources. In this review, we critically assess the current status of the field and discuss different biotechnological approaches to enhance the accumulation of commercially valuable target terpenoids.