Plant volatiles and defense

Abstract

In nature, plants are adversely affected by environmental conditions like abiotic and biotic stresses. In addition to mechanical or physical defensive ways, plants have an important chemical defensive mechanism to cope up with these adverse conditions. Plant volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have various direct and indirect defense roles against various abiotic stresses (like temperature, water stress, ozone, salt stress, and heavy metals) and biotic stresses like herbivores and pathogen (above ground and below ground). In this chapter we review the defensive role of plant VOCs against abiotic and biotic stresses.