Research methods to study plant secondary metabolic pathways and their applications in the analysis of the biosynthetic pathway of stilbenes from Polygonum multiflorum –A review

Plant secondary metabolites play significant roles in plant-environment interactions. Plant derived secondary metabolites are compounds that can be widely used in industry, medicine, food sciences etc. In this review, we summarize the research methods applied to analyse biosynthetic pathways of plant secondary metabolites. Moreover we present an up to date overview of the studies that were performed on biosynthetic pathways of stilbenes. In this manuscript we put emphasis on the biosynthetic pathway of 2,3,5,4'-tetrahydroxystilbene-2-O-β-D-glucoside (TSG), an active component extracted from Polygonum multiflorum Thunb.