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Environmental Effects on Nutrient Composition and Pharmaceutical Properties of Various...
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Environmental Effects on Nutrient Composition and Pharmaceutical Properties of Various Plants

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2025 | Viewed by 640

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Igor Kovalchuk

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB T1K 3M4, Canada
Interests: plant environment interactions; epigenomics; stress memory; medicinal plants; nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Olga Kovalchuk

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, Canada
Interests: medicinal plants; cancer; inflammation; diabetes; aging
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Plants produce various metabolites aiding them in growth and development. Many of these metabolites are altered in response to abiotic and biotic stresses. Such metabolites allow plants to better withstand adverse conditions. Humans learned to use variety of plants and plant extracts for food and medicine and even learn how to apply certain stressed to enrich useful metabolites. In this topic we propose to collect articles describing changes in metabolite composition in response to abiotic and biotic stress in plants. We also expect submission of papers indicating how stress affects nutritional value of plants, including changes in protein or lipid profile and production of secondary metabolites such as flavonoids and alkaloids. Since many of the metabolites have medicinal properties, it would be interesting to see papers reporting how changes in growth parameters alter metabolite profiles and medicinal properties of such metabolites.

Prof. Dr. Igor Kovalchuk
Prof. Dr. Olga Kovalchuk
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. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2700 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

  • plant stress response
  • changes in metabolite profile
  • changes in nutrients in response to stress
  • medicinal properties of stress-induced metabolites
  • abiotic and biotic stress
  • polyphenols and flavonoids
  • xenohormesis

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 2447 KiB  
Article
Entomopathogenic Fungi Effectively Control Phorodon cannabis Aphid Population in Cannabis sativa Plants
by Daniel Lopez Restrepo and Igor Kovalchuk
Plants 2025, 14(6), 931; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14060931 - 16 Mar 2025
Viewed by 474
Abstract
The rapid expansion of the cannabis industry in Canada post-legalization has heightened the prevalence of pests, particularly the cannabis aphid Phorodon cannabis (P. cannabis), which poses significant threats to crop health. This study investigates the immediate effects of P. cannabis on [...] Read more.
The rapid expansion of the cannabis industry in Canada post-legalization has heightened the prevalence of pests, particularly the cannabis aphid Phorodon cannabis (P. cannabis), which poses significant threats to crop health. This study investigates the immediate effects of P. cannabis on Cannabis sativa (C. sativa) plants and explores biological control strategies utilizing entomopathogenic fungi. Fungal isolates of Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae were isolated from infected aphids, cultured, and characterized. Infection tests on aphids revealed that both fungi achieved 100% aphid mortality at high conidial concentrations (1 × 107 conidia/mL) by the 10th DAT, with Beauveria bassiana demonstrating better efficacy. In greenhouse trials on three cannabis varieties, B. bassiana effectively controlled aphid populations, keeping levels low and stable in infested plants treated with B. bassiana at the concentration of 1 × 107 conidia mL−1 (I-B) and infested plants treated with insecticide (I-I). Both I-B and I-I treatments maintained aphid populations near zero for nine weeks. In contrast, control plants showed significant aphid growth, with the Perseid variety being the most susceptible, followed by Congo Durban, while GCC exhibited the lowest susceptibility. Cannabinoid and terpene analyses revealed that treatment with insecticide substantially decreased the amount of produced cannabinoids and terpenes. In contrast, Beauveria bassiana-treated plants exhibited higher concentrations of key metabolites, including delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid and cannabidiolic acid, and total terpenes, compared to chemically treated plants, and in two out of three cultivars, these concentrations were higher than in control, untreated plants. The findings highlight Beauveria bassiana as an eco-friendly alternative for pest management that not only controls aphids effectively but also supports the biochemical quality of cannabis plants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Effects on Nutrient Composition and Pharmaceutical Properties of Various Plants)
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