Plants of the genusPinusare able to grow in a wide range of environments, many of which are quite harsh and extreme. High benefit–cost ratio of pine plantations resides on the relatively low demand for management investments and high economic and environmental services returns. Pine forests work as sinks of atmospheric carbon, contributing to greenhouse effect mitigation. They are important sources of numerous useful products, including not only wood and cellulose but also nonwood products used by the chemical, food, and pharmaceutical industries, as well as for biorefineries. This review examines biological and economic aspects of pine trees concerning the chemical industry, especially the contributions of this natural source for replacing petroleum‐derived chemicals and fuels, improving food safety, and increasing carbon storage. Future goals for this forestry sector, such as the establishment of super‐resinous forests, are also discussed.

Plants have developed several strategies to overcome the broad scope of environmental challenges imposed by biotic and abiotic stresses, including chemical defenses known as secondary metabolites, natural products or, more recently, specialized metabolites, i.e. chemicals often not present in all plant species, which are mostly involved in ecochemical interactions. Nonprotein amino acids (NPAAs) comprise a large heterogeneous group of nitrogen-containing specialized metabolites with wide distribution in the Plant Kingdom, commonly found in several genera of Fabaceae. Various examples of toxic effects attributed to the NPAAs on animal, microbial and other plant cells are known and often related to their structural similarities to protein amino acids (PAAs). However, NPAAs have also been shown to play important roles in planta as protectant molecules against oxidative damage, besides increasing tolerance of different plant species to a variety of abiotic-induced stresses, such as drought, salinity, and temperature. In this review, we discuss well-established and novel functions recently unveiled for NPAAs, besides alternative modes of action proposed for these metabolites as key mediators and effectors in responses to abiotic stresses.