ABSTRACT
Around nineteenth century, some preliminary studies indicated that plants may possess melatonin (Mel; Kolár et al., 1995), but clear-cut indications that the plants are having Mel were supported by scientists later during 1995 (Dubbels et al., 1995). However, the existence of phyto-melatonin was reported by scientists in micro-and macro-alga (Balzer et al., 1998), particularly in red alga (Rhodophyta, Lorenz and Lüning, 1998), metazoans (Hardeland, 1999), and other photoautotrophic microorganisms (Hardeland and Poeggeler, 2003). Among the other plant groups, the existence of Mel is still controversial and needs further proof. Phyto-melatonin is now accepted to be present only in angiosperms, in their different parts like fruits, seeds, etc., including some medicinal herbs (Reiter et al., 2007). The reason behind this fact is mainly the lack of specic molecular and biochemical approaches to detect the same in plants other than angiosperms.
