Climate change and production of secondary metabolites in medicinal plants: A review

Abstract

Plant secondary metabolites are unique source for pharmaceuticals, food additives, flavours, and industrially important bio-chemicals. Environmental factors viz., temperature, humidity, light intensity, water, minerals and CO2 influence the growth of a plant and secondary metabolite production. Climate change is causing noticeable effects on the life cycles and distribution of the world’s vegetation, including wild medicinal plants. These metabolites have shown potential in treating various ailments as these plants based drugs would be cost effective due to its abundance and temperamentally quite suiting to millions of our masses, as these plants and their remedies are in use from ancient times. A need for research to improve our understanding of climatic effects on medicinal plants is stressed in the present article. An attempt is being made here to review the influence of abiotic factors and future strategies for research on secondary metabolite production. The research on medicinal plants with respect to climate change is very sporadic and insignificant in comparison with other commercial crops. These groups of plants should not be left as they are potential sources of bio-molecules and neutraceuticals.