The Role of Soil Microorganisms in Enhancing the Efficiency of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants
A special issue of Horticulturae (ISSN 2311-7524). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinals, Herbs, and Specialty Crops".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 December 2025 | Viewed by 89
Special Issue Editors
Interests: microbial and plant interaction; rhizosphere microbiome; soil microorganism; seed microorganism; organic agriculture; development and utilization of microbial resources; biotechnology; biostimulant; medicinal and aromatic plants; bioactive substances; microbial cell factory
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: organic agriculture; biotechnology; seeds; medicinal plants; crops; biostimulants; horticulture; forage crops; soil science; sustainable agriculture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Aromatic and medicinal plants can be used for a wide variety of purposes, such as in the development of natural drugs for various diseases. Inoculating medicinal and aromatic plants by nurturing rhizospheric microorganisms can increase plant growth and development, as well as secondary metabolites through increased moisture and nutrient availability, improved stress tolerance, repressed pathogens, and increased phytochemical synthesis. Through different secondary metabolites, proteins, and mucilage secreted by the developing plant root system, microbial fertilizers recruit specific fungal microorganisms. The application of growth-promoting bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi can reduce the need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides applied to cultivated medicinal and aromatic plant species. By regulating the secondary metabolites of the host, microorganisms also play an important role in influencing the quality of medicinal plants, such as Chinese herbal medicines, during their growth, harvest, processing, transportation, and storage. Unfortunaltely, only a limited number of commercial rhizospheric microorgansims are currently available for medicinal and aromatic plants. This Special Issue aims to focus on the functions and roles of different types of microbes and their interactions with medicinal and aromatic plants through a number of direct or indirect mechanisms, and how the plant–microbe interaction acts on plant growth, what mechanisms are used to survive under stressful environmental conditions, and how the interaction and abiotic parameters can interfere with the success of microbial inoculation in plants, acting as a basis for studies on the plant–microorganism interaction. This Special Issue also aims to consider how microbiota affects the internal and external microenvironment of medicinal plants and herbs, and how microbiota enhances the efficacy and quality of medicinal plants such as Chinese herbal medicines. Therefore, the relationship and interaction between the microenvironment and herbal medicines can be explained.
Prof. Dr. Wenli Sun
Dr. Mohamad Hesam Shahrajabian
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- aromatic plants
- bacterial community
- endophytes
- fungal community
- microbial horticultural plant interaction
- microbial fertilizer
- nutrient exchange
- plant hormone
- root exudates
- soil microbial community
- soil microenvironment
- soil physicochemical properties
- growth-promoting microorganism
- rhizosphere microbial action
- bacterial community
- organic cultivation
- green agriculture
- medicinal plants
- Chinese medicines and natural products
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