Secondary metabolites as a survival strategy in plants of high mountain habitats

Abstract

Secondary metabolites as a survival strategy in plants of high mountain habitats[Metabolitos secundarios como estrategia de supervivencia en plantas de hábitat de alta montaña]Abstract: This review work focuses on how the secondary chemistry could help in the survival of plants in high mountain habitats under extreme environmental conditions. The elevated levels of stress in high areas of the tropic and subtropic change dramatically not only by following the annual cycles of winter and summer but they also change in a single day. Some species, however, are able to successfully grow at heights more than 3000 m in the tropical mountains due, in part, to highly specialized physiological processes that affect their physical and chemical responses. In this study, it describes some strategies of how the secondary metabolites could help the plants to stand the high levels of stress in the high mountain ecosystems.Resumen: Este trabajo de revisión se centra en cómo la química secundaria podría ayudar en la supervivencia de plantas en hábitats de alta montaña en condiciones ambientales extremas. Los altos niveles de estrés en las zonas altas del trópico y subtrópico cambian dramáticamente no solo al seguir los ciclos anuales de invierno y verano, sino que también cambian en un solo día. Sin embargo, algunas especies pueden crecer con éxito a alturas superiores a 3000 m en las montañas tropicales debido, en parte, a procesos fisiológicos altamente especializados que afectan sus respuestas físicas y químicas. En esta revisión, se describen algunas estrategias de cómo los metabolitos secundarios podrían ayudan a las plantas a soportar los altos niveles de estrés en los ecosistemas de alta montaña. Palabras clave: Estrés abiótico; Estrés biótico; Metabolitos secundarios; Ambientes de gran altura. Recibido | Este artículo puede ser citado como / This article must be cited as: D Rodríguez-Hernández. 2019 Secondary metabolites as a survival strategy in plants of high mountain habitats. Bol Latinoam Caribe Plant Med Aromat 18 (5): 444 -458. Https://doi.org/10.35588/blacpma.19.18.5.29 Rodriguez-Hernández Secondary metabolites as survival in plants of high altitudes Boletín Latinoamericano y del Caribe de Plantas Medicinales y Aromáticas/ 445 Physiol Plant 36: 675 -686.

Ethnobotany of fruit species native to paramos and cloud forests of Northern Peru

“…Of the 49 species recorded, in addition to be used as food, were also used as medicines (Figure 3). The drastic reduction of species diversity in the paramo is explained by low temperatures, high wind speed, higher UV radiation and great soil acidity (Torres Guevara 2019), which favor the exclusive selection of many species, but also favor physiological reactions of synthesis of secondary metabolites with therapeutic activities for humans, as a chemical adaptation to environmental conditions (Bueno et al 2021, Chirinos et al 2013, Espinoza-Tellez et al 2021, Passos et al 2022, Rodríguez-Hernández 2019. The main therapeutic uses of all 27 species were antibiotic, stomach, expectorant, and to a lesser extent as depurative, antidiabetic, soothing, anti-inflammatory, and expectorant (Figure 3).…”