Humic Substances and Efficient Microorganisms: Elicitation of Medicinal Plants—A Review

In function of the green revolution the indiscriminate use of agrochemicals and pesticides in agriculture has been also shown in the production of medicinal plants, resulting in the increase of productivity but with high residual contamination and low rates in the production of secondary metabolites responsible for the biological and pharmacological activity in vegetable drugs. In another hand, new techniques of elicitation has been applied to stimulate the medicinal plants production through the organic and agroecological management, contributing for the increase of performance, quality and production. In this context, it is aimed with this review to present such as the humic substances: fulvic acid, humic acid and efficient microorganisms which influence and help the ontogeny and the secondary metabolites production of medicinal plants. The reviewed articles show that the use of fulvic acid, humic acid and efficient microorganisms in the production of medicinal plants contributes on the increase of biosynthesis, secondary metabolites production such as coumarins, alkaloids, phenylpropanoids and essential oils, as well as the increase of nutrients absorption, growth and development of species.