Improving medicinal crops through phytochemical perspective: Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha)

TLDR: This chapter summarizes the biosynthetic pathway and characterize the genes/enzymes of the pathway along with the in vitro developments associated with withanolide production, useful in defining the plants as well as in developing newer plants with promising pharmacological and agrotechnological traits.

Abstract: Medicinal plants are highly important for producing structurally unique phytomolecules that possess diverse pharmaceutical and commercial significance In this chapter, various modern molecular approaches are discussed to improve medicinal plants, using Ashwandha (Withania somnifera) as an example, wherein tremendous progress has happened during the last decade or so W somnifera, commonly known as Ashwagandha, possesses wide therapeutic repute due to the presence of signature phytochemical withanolides (C-28 steroidal lactone-based compounds) In-depth study of biochemical pathways and regulation is an important area of research owing to the wide range of medicinal properties of withanolides The enzymes involved in the early biosynthetic process of withanolides have been characterized to some extent With recent developments in next-generation sequencing during the last decades, the identification of novel enzymes involved in the modification of the withanolide backbone has taken place In this chapter, we summarize the biosynthetic pathway and characterize the genes/enzymes of the pathway along with the in vitro developments associated with withanolide production The information is useful in defining the plants as well as in developing newer plants with promising pharmacological and agrotechnological traits