Gamma irradiation increases the production of secondary metabolites.

What is it about?

Ionizing radiation induces free radical formation. Hence, to confront the induced oxidative stress, plant system produces higher amounts of anti-oxidant enzymes and secondary metabolites. So, by irradiating the medicinally important plants one can increase the content of secondary metabolites. However, higher doses can damage the tissue and it depends on the nature and origin of the tissues. Different plant parts and in-vitro cultures have been using for this purpose. The optimum dose of irradiation, suitable tissue and the amount of increase in secondary metabolites have been addressed in this review. Also, the biochemical mechanisms underlying the radiation effect on enhancement of secondary metabolites has been reviewed.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Identification of the optimum dose is the important step for the production of secondary metabolites at industrial level. We showed that, relative low doses of gamma irradiation (20–40 Gy) could be effective for the enhancement of various secondary metabolites. Also, we noticed that, the gamma irradiation showed many fold higher accumulation when compared to those obtained by biotic and abiotic elicitors. A detailed understanding of this mechanisms could scale-up of operations for several fold increases in secondary metabolites production. This would be good for sustainable agriculture relevance of medicinal plants and would provide higher output and effective formulations.

Perspectives