Scientific Study of Brassinosteroids on Production of Fruit Crops: A Review

Brassinosteroids (BRs) are considered as the sixth group of plant growth regulators with significant growth promoting activity in many horticulture and agriculture crops. This phytohormone was discovered from the pollen of Brassica napus L. on the basis of their ability to promote growth. Currently, more than 70 BRs have been isolated from different plant species, but only three viz., Brassinolide (BL), 24-Epibrassinolide (EBL) and 28-Homobrassinolide (HBL) are found to be the most biologically active forms and extensively used in various crops. They are eco-friendly, effective at very low concentration, cost effective and almost always have synergetic effect when interacts with other phytohormones. Owing to diverse physiological roles and cross talk with other hormones influence on plant growth and development, they are being collectively referred as ‘pleiotropic phytohormone’. Although, BRs were discovered towards the end of twentieth century, but the dynamic applications and outcomes were reported mainly during the inception of twenty first century, hence BRs were termed as ‘hormone of the twenty-first century’. The application of BRs at different growth stages have been reported to positively influences such as nutrients uptakes, growth, yield and quality attributes on many fruit crops which includes tropical, sub-tropical and temperate fruit crops at very low concentrations have great roles in terms of growth, yield, fruit quality and stress tolerance mechanisms, which results to lucrative adventure of farming community. This review article will provide an elucidated insight into the application of BR in different fruit crops.