A review of mycorrhizal fungi and its effect on medicinal plants

Medicinal plants have existed in Iran's agricultural systems since ancient times. These plants were used as traditional medicine in Iranian medicine. However, medicinal plants have always been affected by ecological factors, and their active ingredients and yields have undergone changes, and secondary metabolites have increased in some plants under environmental stress conditions and decreased in other plants. There are strategies to deal with these stresses in the natural and cultivated ecosystem of medicinal plants in the environment, such as using beneficial microorganisms, such as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in the soil, and this research was done for this purpose. In this study, the results showed that mycorrhizal fungi are soil organisms that can create an excellent physiological relationship with the plant by coexisting with the roots of plants. Mycorrhizal fungi are soil organisms that can create an excellent physiological relationship with the plant by coexisting with the roots of plants. During environmental stress, the colonization of mycorrhizal fungi with plant roots leads to an increase in plant secondary metabolites such as flavonoids and essential oils, and by changing the antioxidant activity (increasing superoxide dismutase, peroxidase) and increasing the amount of phosphorus, the plant strengthens.