METABOLITES IN PLANTS AND ITS CLASSIFICATION

Abstract

Metabolites such as carbohydrates, organic and amino acids, vitamins, hormones, flavonoids, phenolics, and glucosinolates are essential for plant growth, development, stress adaptation, and defense. Besides the importance for the plant itself, such metabolites determine the nutritional quality of food, colour, taste, smell, antioxidative, anticarcinogenic, antihypertension, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, immunostimulating, and cholesterol-lowering properties. Secondary metabolites are organic molecules that are not involved in the normal growth and development of an organism. While primary metabolites have a key role in survive of the species, playing an active function in the photosynthesis and respiration, absence of secondary metabolites does not result in immediate death, but rather in long-term impairment of the organism’s survivability, often playing an important role in plant defense. This review is focused on plant metabolites and classification.