Recent Advancement in Metabolomic Research: Applications and Limitations

The goal of the technique known as “metabolomics” is to gain a more thorough comprehension of the biochemical makeup and metabolic networks of living things. Metabolites are by-products of gene expression in biological systems and it plays various crucial roles in plant growth, development, and plant–environment interaction. These metabolites also determine medicinal plants and edible plants’ pharmaceutical and nutraceutical properties. Studies based on metabolomics offer an in-depth overview of an organism’s functioning state. Analytical tools like mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy are used to detect and characterize metabolites. Metabolomics alone or in amalgamation with other omics approaches like transcriptomics and proteomics has wide range of potential and applications. This chapter highlights a few applications of metabolomics with limitations of its analytical methods and the role of metabolomic approaches in quality assurance with a special focus on applications of metabolomics in plants and environment research.