Applications of metabolomics in assessing ecological effects of emerging contaminants and pollutants on plants

•Metabolomics is a tool to detect changes in the metabolome in biological systems.•Mass spectrometry is the most widely used technique for metabolomic analysis.•Ecotoxicology can apply metabolomics to define contaminants effects on the metabolome.•Amino acids, organic acids, carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleotides changes reflect the status of organisms.•Advancement in instrumentation and databases will expand the use of metabolomics.