Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2014 Sep 1;19(9):13541-63.
doi: 10.3390/molecules190913541.

Elicitation: a tool for enriching the bioactive composition of foods

Nieves Baenas  1 , Cristina García-Viguera  2 , Diego A Moreno  3
Affiliations
Review

Elicitation: a tool for enriching the bioactive composition of foods

Nieves Baenas et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

Elicitation is a good strategy to induce physiological changes and stimulate defense or stress-induced responses in plants. The elicitor treatments trigger the synthesis of phytochemical compounds in fruits, vegetables and herbs. These metabolites have been widely investigated as bioactive compounds responsible of plant cell adaptation to the environment, specific organoleptic properties of foods, and protective effects in human cells against oxidative processes in the development of neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases and certain types of cancer. Biotic (biological origin), abiotic (chemical or physical origin) elicitors and phytohormones have been applied alone or in combinations, in hydroponic solutions or sprays, and in different selected time points of the plant growth or during post-harvest. Understanding how plant tissues and their specific secondary metabolic pathways respond to specific treatments with elicitors would be the basis for designing protocols to enhance the production of secondary metabolites, in order to produce quality and healthy fresh foods.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
General mechanism after elicitor perception. Abbreviations: SAR (systemic adquired response), ISR (induced systemic resistance), ROS (Reactive oxygen species), RNS (reactive nitrogen species), NADPH (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate), SA (salicylic acid), JA (jasmonic acid), ET (ethylene) [48,49,50].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Factors influencing bioactive compounds in plant response.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Guo Y.L., Zhang P.Y., Guo M.R., Chen K.S. Secondary metabolites and plant defence against pathogenic disease. Plant Physiol. 2012;48:429–434.
    1. Mazid M., Khan T.A., Mohammad F. Role of secondary metabolites in defense mechanisms of plants. Biol. Med. 2011;3:232–249.
    1. Li J., Ou-Lee T.M., Raba R., Amundson R.G., Last R.L. Arabidopsis flavonoid mutants are hypersensitive to uv-b irradiation. Plant Cell. 1993;5:171–179. doi: 10.1105/tpc.5.2.171. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Vasconsuelo A., Boland R. Molecular aspects of the early stages of elicitation of secondary metabolites in plants. Plant Sci. 2007;172:861–875. doi: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2007.01.006. - DOI
    1. Croteau R., Kutchan T.M., Lewis N.G. Natural products (secondary metabolites) In: Buchanan B., Gruissem W., Jones R., editors. Biochemistry & Molecular Biology of Plants. ASPP; Rockville, MD, USA: 2000. pp. 1250–1318.

Publication types