Metabolomics in Medicinal Plants

Lina María Londoño Giraldo, Edmundo Lozoya Gloria, Alma Angélica Del Villar Martínez

Te invitamos a leer el artículo "Metabolomics in Medicinal Plants" publicado en "Advances in Plant Biotechnology", en el que colaboró el  Dr. Edmundo Lozoya Gloria de Cinvestav Irapuato.

Autores:

Lina María Londoño Giraldo, Edmundo Lozoya Gloria, Alma Angélica Del Villar Martínez

Resumen:
Plants synthesize a wide range of secondary metabolites, such as alkaloids, flavonoids, quinones, lignans, steroids, and terpenoids. The accumulation of those metabolites often occurs in response to different stimuli, such as osmotic stress, temperature, humidity, drought, or bacterial, yeast, or fungal extracts. Because of this, the analysis of the metabolites is particularly important in understanding the physiology, including plant growth and development, and defense mechanisms, particularly for medicinal plants, because of their therapeutic properties. Comprehensive analysis of metabolites is performed by metabolomic technologies. Metabolomics can be divided into two categories: non-directed metabolomics and targeted metabolomics, the latter including metabolite fingerprinting and metabolic footprinting. The most common platforms used for metabolomics include gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Nowadays, there are databases for the identification of metabolites, databases for the analysis of the respective biosynthetic pathways, and tools for spectral processes and data analysis. In this context, some papers include the development of metabolomics methodologies for some medicinal plants associated with skin care, management of diabetes, cancer treatments, and cardiovascular diseases over the past two years. This is a journey that explains the new vision that metabolomics offers for the successful use of plants of pharmaceutical interest.