From Phytochemicals to Physiology: The Metabolic and Redox Impact of Botanical Extracts on Crops

In agricultural practice, botanical extracts have emerged as promising biostimulants that can modulate key metabolic and redox processes in crops, thereby increasing stress resistance and productivity. This review provides a comprehensive synthesis of current knowledge on how botanical extracts influence plant metabolism and redox homeostasis, with particular emphasis on their role in adaptive cellular responses. Additionally, it examines how agronomic practices, such as nutritional strategies, water availability, light regimes, and preharvest biostimulant applications, can be utilized to increase the bioactive composition and efficacy of these extracts. By integrating recent advances in metabolomics and transcriptomics, this review outlines the biochemical and molecular reprogramming triggered by botanical extracts, identifies knowledge gaps, and outlines future research directions to optimize their use in sustainable agriculture. The sections comprising the review are an introduction that establishes the context and objective of the manuscript. The second section describes the bioactive constituents found in botanical extracts from different species, along with their metabolic and redox effects. The third section describes the plant response to the botanical extracts. The fourth section describes the metabolic and gene expression reprogramming that occurs following the application of a botanical extract. The last section presents the conclusion and future directions envisioned by the authors.