Chemical Regulators in Horticulture: Seed Germination, Propagation and Metabolic Enhancement of Medicinal 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: 20 June 2026 | Viewed by 17
Special Issue Editors
Interests: medicinal plants; plant secondary metabolism; synthetic biology
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The sustainable cultivation of medicinal plants is essential to meet increasing global demand while conserving wild genetic resources. A major challenge in this process lies in the early stages of production, including seed dormancy, low germination rates, and inefficient propagation systems, which limit the availability of high-quality planting material. Furthermore, ensuring consistent and enhanced accumulation of bioactive metabolites under cultivated conditions remains a critical goal. The targeted application of chemical regulators, such as plant hormones, exogenous elicitors, and signaling molecules, offers a promising approach to overcome these bottlenecks. This Special Issue highlights the role of such regulators in optimizing key horticultural traits, from seed establishment to secondary metabolism.
This Special Issue will present innovative research on the use of chemical regulators to improve medicinal plant production. We invite studies focusing on breaking seed dormancy, enhancing seed germination, refining in vitro propagation and micropropagation protocols, and inducing the biosynthesis of target secondary metabolites. Contributions may also include work on the role of regulators in improving abiotic stress tolerance and their integration with controlled environment horticulture. We welcome articles that provide mechanistic insights or practical applications aimed at achieving high germination efficiency, rapid clonal multiplication, and elevated phytochemical quality in medicinal plants.
Prof. Dr. Dongfeng Yang
Prof. Dr. Zaibiao Zhu
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Horticulturae is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- medicinal plants
- seed dormancy
- plant growth regulators
- elicitors
- plant tissue culture
- in vitro propagation
- bioactive constituents
- plant hormones
- metabolic enhancement
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