Responses of plants to herbicides: Recent advances and future prospectives

Abstract Herbicide is most widely used among all pesticides. Herbicides are phytotoxic to crops, especially when the concentration used is above the recommended level. The selective application of herbicide can cause biochemical and physiological damages. The physiological damages can cause oxidative stress and can counter damage other processes. However, to cope the stress, plants are equipped with strong defense system, which include both enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidants, but herbicide application overwhelms the defense mechanism and makes the plants susceptible to oxidative damage. Herbicides may not manifest into any visible injuries but still may alter biochemical and physiological traits. Herbicides may directly inhibit photosynthetic process by affecting the electron transport across photosystem II and photosystem I and by photobleaching effects. Indirect damage to photosynthesis is mainly through oxidative stress and also by affecting other metabolic processes and thus restricting the availability of resources.