Review and future prospects on the mechanisms related to cold stress resistance and tolerance in medicinal plants

Medicinal plants play important role in industrial production of medicines. Moreover, they consume without complicated processes around the world. They are considered as healthy cure without any harmful side effects at least among ordinary people. Cold stress is one the harmful abiotic stresses and constrains medicinal plants yielding geographically. Cold acclimation is a process that induces cold stress resistance in temperate plants. Various structural and morphological alterations are involved in this process. Also, enzymatic and non -enzymatic agents play role in cold acclimation. Cell membrane modification and compatible solutes accumula-tion and so many other changes occur through cold acclimation. Growing under different stressful conditions, medicinal plants synthesize different components such as metabolites. Moreover, ROS can be generated in plant cells under stressful conditions. The accumulation of bioactive components, biosynthesis of phytohor-mones, ion hemostasis, osmolyte (compatible solutes) accumulation and changes in nutrient uptake, root system modification and systemic resistance are some of new investigations that are considered in this review. (c) 2020 Ecological Society of China. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.