中文摘要：

近年来发现褪黑激素不仅存在于动物中，而且在植物尤其是药用植物和食用植物中也普遍存在．目前国外对植物中的褪黑激素研究比较关注，国内仅有个别报道．本文综述了截止目前国内外对植物中褪黑激素含量与功能的研究进展，同时也介绍了褪黑激素的测量方法等．检测褪黑激素的方法有HPLC（高效液相法），RIA（放射免疫测定），LC—MS（液相色谱-质谱），GC—MS（气相色谱-质谱）等方法．褪黑激素在植物中有许多重要功能，如抗自由基抗氧化，促进植物生长和影响短日照植物开花，促进果实成熟以及抑制细胞程序性死亡等．因此研究褪黑激素在植物中的含量和功能对人们的生产生活具有较大的实际意义．最后讨论了植物中褪黑激素研究及其在农业生产中应用的前景．表1参41

英文摘要：

Melatonin is not only found in animals, but also ubiquitous in plants, especially in some edible plants and medicihal plants. This review summarizes the development of melatonin researches at international level, focusing on the content and functions of melatonin in plants. This review also presents and comments on currently available methods for the quantification of melatonin, which includes HPLC （High performance liquid chromatography）, RIA （Radioimmunoassay）, LC-MS （Liquid chromatography with mass spectroscopy） and GC-MS （Gas spectroscopy with mass spectroscopy）. The melatonin in plants possesses many important functions, such as serving as free radicals scavenger and acting in antioxidant activity and anti-apoptosis. Melatonin can inhibit cell procedure death, stimulate plant growth, and enhance flowering of short-day plants and ripening of fruits. Thus, it is of great significance to investigate the content and function of melatonin in plants. Its ecological function and application in agriculture are also discussed in this paper. In general, this review supplies the basic information for further studies on plant melatonin. Tab 1, Ref 41