Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in the Post-Genomics Era

Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in the Post-genomics Era is the first reference to provide a comprehensive look at both traditional medicine plant growth and production alongside the latest research in large-scale, high-throughput technologies. Medicinal and aromatic plants have been used for centuries in the traditional medicine systems of many cultures based on the bioactive compounds within the plants. Most recently, however, the exploration of the secondary metabolites from traditionally medicinal plants has been extended to sectors such as pharmaceutical, nutritional, and even cosmetics. With the development of omics technologies, new insights into the characterization as well as the mining their molecular mechanisms has developed. These technologies have enabled greater understanding of the intricate biochemical pathways associated to the biosynthesis of bioactive compounds. Synthetic biology, CRISPR gene editing, and advanced bioinformatics are also advancing the engineering of these metabolites in alternative modelling systems such as prokaryotic hosts, providing new opportunities for drug discovery, as well as agricultural and environmental sustainability. Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in the Post-genomics Era explores current understanding and recent advances in the application of large-scale, high-throughput technologies for mining the potential of medicinal and aromatic plants.