PLANT HORMONES: PHYSIOLOGICAL ROLE AND HEALTH EFFECTS

Hormones are signal molecules that are naturally occurring plant growth substances, as well as synthetic compounds and chemical substances. Plant hormones are major growth regulating hormones such as auxin, gibberellin, and cytokinins. However, few plant hormones also work as growth inhibitor such as ethylene and abscisic acid. PGRs play important role in the whole life cycle of plants include plant growth, development, flowering, fruiting, ageing, senescence, color enhancement of fruits, prevention or promotion of stem elongation, leafing, leaf fall. Auxin and gibberellin are used for increasing crop grain productivity, increasing higher yield in leafy vegetables, to increase the size of fruits and vegetables and to make them look attractive for consumer and to improve the agricultural production. The residues of PGRs (auxin, gibberellin) in agricultural products are seriously detrimental to human health because they have been found with hepatotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, genotoxicity. Furthermore, PGRs are suspected to disrupt the function of human and animal reproductive systems. Therefore, there is a need to check the overdoses of these regulators in agriculture production for further ensuring food safety. Several techniques are used to detect the residue of these regulators such as LC-MS, HPLC, GC-MS, Immunoassays techniques (radioassay, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay).