Factors Affecting Polyphenol Biosynthesis in Wild and Field Grown St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum L. HypericaceaeGuttiferae).docVIP

Molecules 2009, 14, 682-725; doi:10.3390/moleculeOPEN ACCESS molecules ISSN 1420-3049 /journal/molecules Review Factors Affecting Polyphenol Biosynthesis in Wild and Field Grown St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum L. Hypericaceae/Guttiferae) Renato Bruni 1,* and Gianni Sacchetti 2 1 Dip. di Biologia Evolutiva e Funzionale – Sez. Biologia Vegetale, Viale G. Usberti 11A, I-43100, Università degli Studi di Parma, Italy 2 Dip. di Biologia ed Evoluzione – Sez. Risorse Agrotecnologiche e Farmaceutiche AgriUnife, C.so Ercole d’Este 32, I-44100, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Italy * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-mail: renato.bruni@unipr.it; Fax: +39 0521 905403. Received: 28 November 2008; in revised form: 22 January 2009 / Accepted: 6 February 2009 / Published: 11 February 2009 Abstract: The increasing diffusion of herbal products is posing new questions: why are products so often different in their composition and efficacy? Which approach is more suitable to increase the biochemical productivity of medicinal plants with large-scale, low- cost solutions? Can the phytochemical profile of a medicinal plant be modulated in order to increase the accumulation of its most valuable constituents? Will polyphenol-rich medicinal crops ever be traded as commodities? Providing a proactive answer to such questions is an extremely hard task, due to the large number of variables involved: intraspecific chemodiversity, plant breeding, ontogenetic stage, post-harvest handling, biotic and abiotic factors, to name but a few. An ideal path in this direction should include the definition of optimum pre-harvesting and post-harvesting conditions and the availability of specific Good Agricultural Practices centered on secondary metabolism enhancement. The first steps to be taken are undoubtedly the evaluation and the organization of scatter