Progress in quantitative analysis of plant hormones

Plant hormones are small molecular natural products that regulate all plant developmental processes at low concentrations. Quantitative analysis of plant hormones is increasingly important for in-depth study of their biosynthesis, transport, metabolism and molecular regulatory mechanisms. Although plant hormone analysis remains a bottleneck in plant scientific research owing to the trace concentrations and complex components in plant crude extracts, much progress has been achieved in the development of extraction, purification and detection techniques in recent years. Solid phase extraction and chromatography/mass spectrometry have been applied widely for purification and quantitative analysis of plant hormones owing to their high selectivity and sensitivity. Purification methods such as liquid partition and immunoaffinity chromatography, and detection methods including immunoassay and electrochemical analysis, are employed. The advantages and disadvantages of these methods are discussed. In situ, real-time and multi-plant hormone profiling will comprise mainstream techniques for quantitative analyses in future studies on the regulatory mechanisms and crosstalk of plant hormones.