Variations in production of bioactive compounds under abiotic stresses in the plants: A review

Plants are surrounded by complex set of environmental conditions which are categories into abiotic and biotic factors. The growth, development and overall survival of plants are regulated by the intensity of stresses exerts by biotic and abiotic factors of the environment. Stresses act individually or co-occurrence of different stresses at a time on plants and its study is challenging and complex process. However, the response of plants to the stresses is equally complex. Plant produces bioactive compounds in response of stresses as a stress tolerance. These bioactive compounds are also called secondary metabolites which plays significant role in the adaptation of plants to the stress condition and changing environment.In the present chapter emphasis was given on the study of production of different bioactive compounds in response to different abiotic stresses. The subtitles, types of bioactive compounds studied in plants showed wide variety of bioactive compound produce by plants in response to stress. Plant encounter number of abiotic stresses in plants like cold, heat drought, salinity, temperature and flood etc. Another subtitle, the impacts of different abiotic stresses on production of bioactive compounds in plants showed, the species of the families like Asteraceae, Papvaraceae, Apocynaceae, Lamiaceae, Brassicaceae, Malvaceaeetc shows responses to abiotic stresses and effect of abiotic stresses on productivity of agricultural crop plants. Overall study concluded that in this technological era several changes in environmental condition exert tremendous pressure of abiotic stresses on plants especially interfering with the productivity of agricultural land plants. Review shows that many plants cope up with the abiotic stresses by synthesizing bioactive compounds as a stress tolerance, but some plants fail to acclimatize and eventually die.