Secondary Plant Metabolites: Sources of Principles for Use in Agriculture, Food Industry and for Human Health Safety

Abstract

For over several million years, plants have evolved and adapted to environmental conditions, developing multiple mechanisms. To protect themselves from insect attack, they have developed protective mechanisms such as repellents and even insecticidal effects. Even if, during time, most repellent / insecticide plants were replaced with synthetic insecticides due to their effectiveness, their side effects such as environmental contamination, food and feed residues and pest resistance, nowadays, plants have regained popularity. Undoubtedly, botanical insecticides are an interesting alternative to pest control, but only a few of the more than 250,000 species of plants on our planet have been properly evaluated for this purpose. This means that their potential could be valorized in commercial products not only to remove environmental contamination, but also for human health safety. Our paper focuses on highlighting the ability of primary and secondary metabolites available in plants for specific use in different sectors (e.g. agriculture, food industry) for assuring human health.