*Is There Still Room to Improve Medicinal Herbs (Functional Herbs) by Gene Editing for Health? DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.104323*

difference occurs in the next generation of organism, biallelic may be provided, and heterozygous and homozygous mutations may be generated [48]. Svitashev et al. [49] and Woo et al. [50] have conducted studies with lettuce, rice, and corn to get successful mutations and modified fields with no alien DNA and marker. In addition, some microalgae, namely *C. reinhardtii*, *Chlamydomonas*, and *P. tricornutum*, have been edited successfully without cytotoxic effects [45, 51, 52]. According to the literature, genome editing with CRISPR/Cas engineering for single nucleotide resolution editing, multiple gene editing, transcriptional regulation, and genome-wide modifications of *Saccharomyces cerevisiae* have been shown [53, 54]. *S. cerevisiae* is an important eukaryotic yeast for the biosynthesis and biofuels [55, 56]. However, there are still some limitations and challenges, in particular the application of CRISPR could limit the effectiveness of yeast processing.

All these technologies have been reported for improving plant micronutrients, such as flavonoids, phenols, saponins, tannins, etc. [57]. These are bioactive compounds known as medicines that are important to health. In particular, the CRISPR/


#### **Table 1.**

*Some nutritional quality-improved foods by gene-editing technologies (Prepared according to literatures; Ku and Ha [64], Scarano et al. [65], Dey et al. [66]).*

Cas9 technology can be used to target genes in medicinal plants and their compounds. In addition, this technology can tolerate environmental stress along with quality and performance. There have been successful studies about plant biosynthetic pathways with CRISPR/Cas9, such as tomato for gamma-aminobutyric acid, banana, and rice for beta carotene [58–61]. Also, CRISPR/Cas9 is an effectible technology for bacterial resistance of herbs and plant-derived products and against climate changes [62, 63]. Genome editing technology involves more controlled mutations, and genetic improvement is less time-consuming.

Biotechnology approaches have been interpreted in the context of genome editing technologies over the years. Secondary plant metabolites that belong to genome technology are pharmacologically important as well as nutritional (**Table 1**). However, the editing of the genome is still in its beginnings in plants and their contents. As new and interesting results are obtained in this field, new technologies will emerge.
