Phytochemical Compounds with Health Beneficial Activity in Crop Extracts

Dear Colleagues,

Phytochemicals are valuable bioactive compounds that provide numerous health benefits and pharmaceutical and industrial uses. Over the past few decades, the use of phytochemicals derived from plants has been investigated for their positive beneficial effects on human health that could play an important role in chronic disease prevention. Flavonoids, carotenoids, nitrates, alkaloids, glucosinolates, anthocyanins and other secondary metabolites identified from plants have been reported to exhibit beneficial properties. However, the claims were often based on a mixture of multiple more or less similar substances, where the function and mechanism of action of a single component remained unknown, and the suggested functions lacked an underlying molecular mechanism or were based on outdated concepts such as ‘antioxidant activity’. Moreover, the desired phytochemicals are biosynthesized and accumulate in crops in developmentally and tissue-specific ways. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of the functional, molecular and cellular basis of their beneficial effects is needed. This collection aims to bring together a set of cutting-edge research articles that showcase some of the most significant advances in the discovery of phytochemicals in plants. We invite front-line scientists to contribute original research papers, letters, reviews and short communications related to biochemistry, metabolic engineering, gene editing, specialized crop metabolites, analytical methods, defense responses, as well as metabolic pathways for the biosynthesis of health-promoting phytochemicals in crops.

Dr. Ping Chen
Dr. Kunmei Chen
Guest Editors

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• antioxidant
• crops
• flavonoids
• anthocyanins
• metabolic pathways
• key genes