Metabolomic analysis of plants and crops

This chapter presents a brief review of the history of plant/crop metabolomics and summarizes the instrumental platforms mainly used for unbiased plant profiling investigations, including chromatographic and spectroscopic methods. An overview of metabolomics studies for various plants and crops from different plant families including Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Fabaceae, Lamiaceae, Poaceae, and Solanaceae is given. Selected examples from the plant families are presented with special emphasis on commercially and nutritionally important staple crops. Plant-specific and non- specific metabolomics databases for plants and crops are briefly outlined.