An insight into in vitro strategies for bioproduction of isoflavones

Isoflavones (ISF) are potent secondary metabolites, widely distributed among the members of the Fabaceae family. They have a multitude of biological functions in plants, animals, and humans. Most of the functions exhibited by isoflavones are highly beneficial to human beings. Benefits mainly include lowering cardiovascular diseases, reducing menopausal symptoms, and decreasing the risk of hormone-related cancers. Therefore, this potent compound has emerged as a promising possibility for making medicines and has grabbed the pharmaceutical industry's attention. Nowadays, many isoflavone-based products are manufactured commercially as food supplements, and their demand is drastically increasing globally. Numerous in vitro studies have successfully synthesized value-added metabolites that possess a vast number of industrial applications. Production of isoflavones within the plants depends on several biological and environmental conditions. Hence, in vitro cultures provide an alternate source to recover these compounds independent of environmental factors and limited bio-resources. Plant organ cultures could be highly recommended as a reliable platform for synthesizing plant-based pharmaceutically active isoflavones. Moreover, biotechnological approaches, such as elicitation and precursor feeding, can eventually promote the yield and increase these metabolites' production. This review initially outlines information regarding the source, structure, synthesis, and diverse roles of isoflavones. Later, this paper describes different plant organ cultures for the in vitro production of isoflavones and highlights elicitation strategies as well as metabolic engineering work to enhance production.