Regulation of plant hormones on the secondary metabolism of medicinal plants

With the rise of the big health industry, research on the active ingredients of Chinese herbal medicines has been widely considered. The secondary metabolites of medicinal plants play an important role in preventing and treating various diseases as the active components of Chinese herbal medicine. Therefore, improving the production of secondary metabolites and the quality of medicinal materials in medicinal plants has become the core of research work. Plant hormones, essential for controlling growth, development, and metabolic processes in plants, play a critical role in this regulatory mechanism. They contribute to the growth and development of medicinal plants, influence the synthesis of secondary metabolites, and regulate the synthesis of stress-related metabolites by affecting plant responses to stress. In the past, most of the attention on the effects of plant hormones was focused on regulating plant growth and development, and the metabolic regulation network of hormones on medicinal plants was relatively complex, so there were few systematic and comprehensive reports on related studies. This paper aims to summarize the regulation mechanisms and effects of various plant hormones on the secondary metabolism of medicinal plants, highlighting the intricate interactions among these hormones. It seeks to elucidate the regulatory network of plant hormones in the secondary metabolism of medicinal plants, offering a theoretical foundation for future research on improving the quality of Chinese medicinal materials.