Occurrence, Functional Properties of Plant Vitamins and Biotechnological Approaches for Their Improved Production

Vitamins are essential micronutrients that play an important role, and a significant portion of a healthy human diet is made up of vitamins, which are mostly found in extremely complex chemical molecules that are produced by plants. Except for a few vitamins, such as vitamin D, B3, and C, the majority of vitamins are obtained through diet, as the body is unable to synthesize them and supports growth, metabolism, and overall functioning. The most common source of vitamins for both humans and animals is plants. The practice of artificially modifying crop plants to achieve high vitamin sufficiency is known as ‘biofortification’. Among the plant sources are lentils, spinach, asparagus, turnip greens, broccoli, beets, bok choy, cauliflower, parsley, pinto beans, garbanzo beans, black beans, navy beans, kidney beans, papaya, brussels sprouts, green peas, bell peppers, celery, cabbage, summer squash, strawberries, tomatoes, leeks, fennel, lima beans, dried peas, avocado, peanuts, and sunflower seeds are the main foods that contain these vitamins. A wide variety of vitamins, which are essential for human growth and development as well as metabolism, are synthesized by plants. Vitamins function as cofactors and play a vital role in redox chemistry. Some vitamins may even have antioxidant qualities. Vitamins cause plants to respond to stress by producing antioxidants. Based on the imperative role of vitamins, the current review focuses on the important major vitamins and their types in plants and different plant parts. Furthermore, we describe different breeding strategies and approaches for improving vitamin content, including plant cell, tissue, and organ culture; the development of transgenic plants; metabolic engineering; and molecular breeding.