REVIEW ARTICLE Plant terpenes: defense responses, phylogenetic analysis, regulation and clinical applications

Abstract The terpenoids constitute the largest class of natural products and many interesting products are exten-sively applied in the industrial sector as flavors, fragrances, spices and are also used in perfumery and cosmetics. Many terpenoids have biological activities and also used for medical purposes. In higher plants, the conventional ace-tate-mevalonic acid pathway operates mainly in the cytosol and mitochondria and synthesizes sterols, sesquiterpenes and ubiquinones mainly. In the plastid, the non-mevalonic acid pathway takes place and synthesizes hemi-, mono-, sesqui-, and diterpenes along with carotenoids and phytol tail of chlorophyll. In this review paper, recent develop-ments in the biosynthesis of terpenoids, indepth description of terpene synthases and their phylogenetic analysis, reg-ulation of terpene biosynthesis as well as updates of terp-enes which have entered in the clinical studies are reviewed thoroughly