and thereby stimulate the plant to generate the bioactive phytochemical that would have responded to that threat in nature the exposure to the elicitor compound is typically continued for a time of about 1 to 2 days prior to the enzyme treatment the actual time of the treatment is not critical except that it must be sufficient to cause the plant to secrete a sufficient amount of the bioactive phytochemical to make the process economically practical one very active elicitor compound is arachidonic acid other elicitor compounds are known such as e g chitosan breakdown products aluminum ion hydrogen peroxide and u v light other eliciter compounds for stimulating production of bioactive phytochemicals will be known to those skilled in the art the enzymes useful in the practice of the invention can be selected from any of the several classes of enzymes any water soluble or water dispersible enzyme can be used in particular it is preferred to employ water soluble enzymes from the classes known as hydrolases and lyases these materials are well known and do not per se form a part of the invention examples of hydrolases that can be employed include by way of example proteases and carbohydrases such as mannanases amylases and galacturonases examples of the lyases include pectin and pectate lyases the enzyme concentration required in the aqueous organic compound separation medium is dependent in part on the specific enzyme being employed the specific plant root being treated and on.