Heavy metal toxicity and drought stresses are two growing concerns of the global population as these have a disastrous effect on the agriculture sector, creating oxidative stress in plants and leads to deleterious effects, which end up causing a major decline in yield. Hence, carving out the best candidate for combating both these stresses have become the prime objective of researchers. Plectranthus amboinicus (Lour.) Spreng., a medicinal plant, is regarded as one such candidate that can tolerate both drought and zinc stressors by the elicitation of metabolic changes. Variation in the composition of primary and secondary metabolites of P. amboinicus was evaluated in the leaf tissues of the plants subjected to drought and ZnSO₄ (4 mM) treatments. Drought stress resulted in the accumulation of amino acids and sugars in the leaves of plants exposed to this stress. Similarly, zinc stress exhibited a remarkable impact on the synthesis of secondary metabolites like alkaloids, phenols, and flavonoids. Further, on carrying out GC–MS profiling, the compositional variation of secondary metabolites produced in P. amboinicus implicated its inherent potential to survive environments of these two stresses. Compounds like 2-methoxy-4-ethyl-6-methylphenol, gamma-sitosterol, hexadecanoic acid, alpha-amyrin, and ethyl linalool were some of the major secondary metabolites developed in leaves of plants under drought, whereas during ZnSO₄ treatment, the major compounds developed were trans-alpha-bergamotene, squalene, 1,5-dimethyl-1-vinyl-4-hexenyl isovalerate, and spathulenol. This in turn makes the plant more compatible with the stressful environmental conditions, aiding it with better survival and protection. At the same time, the enhancement in the content of these metabolites in this medicinal plant under the influence of these stressors may have applications in the pharmaceutical industry, necessary for the development of novel drugs.

重金属毒性和干旱胁迫是全球人口日益关注的两个问题，因为它们对农业部门产生灾难性影响，在植物中产生氧化胁迫并导致有害影响，最终导致产量大幅下降。因此，找出对抗这两种压力的最佳人选已成为研究人员的主要目标。Plectranthus amboinicus (Lour.) Spreng. 是一种药用植物，被认为是这样一种候选植物，它可以通过引发代谢变化来耐受干旱和锌胁迫。评估了干旱和 ZnSO ₄植物叶片组织中P. amboinicus初级和次级代谢物组成的变化(4 mM) 处理。干旱胁迫导致暴露于这种胁迫的植物叶片中氨基酸和糖的积累。同样，锌胁迫对生物碱、酚类和黄酮类等次生代谢物的合成产生显着影响。此外，在进行 GC-MS 分析时，P. amboinicus 中产生的次生代谢物的组成变化暗示其在这两种压力的环境中生存的内在潜力。2-甲氧基-4-乙基-6-甲基苯酚、γ-谷甾醇、十六烷酸、α-香树脂醇和乙基芳樟醇等化合物是干旱条件下植物叶片中产生的一些主要次生代谢产物，而在 ZnSO ₄治疗，开发的主要化合物是反式-α-佛手柑、角鲨烯、1,5-二甲基-1-乙烯基-4-己烯基异戊酸酯和匙羹藤醇。这反过来又使植物更能适应压力环境条件，帮助它更好地生存和保护。同时，在这些压力因素的影响下，这种药用植物中这些代谢物含量的增加可能在制药行业中得到应用，这对于开发新药是必不可少的。