Herbs and Phyto: Class 1

Question 1

Why fungi dominated the earth before plants? How is it different from humans and plants? Why fungi were useful?

Answer 1

•Fungi excrete digestive enzymes and absorb externally digested nutrients.

1)Animals derive their nutrition by engulfing food 2) Plant derive their nutrition by photosynthesis

•Contributed to soil formation and facilitated plant growth

Question 2

Provide a basic mushroom structure

Answer 2

• Early plants used symbiotic fungi in their roots.
• Fungi have a fruiting body and a large network of underground hyphae.

Question 3

The name of the very big prehistoric mushroom

Answer 3

Prototaxites

Question 4

Why phytochemicals in terrestrial plants appeared at all? Why there are little phytochemicals in water plants?

Answer 4

1)

• Terrestrial plants produce an arsenal of compounds to deter plant-eating animals, discourage the growth of other seedlings, and inhibit soil bacteria and fungi.
• Plants can repel, sicken, confuse, stunt, sterilize, or kill.

2)When all lived in ocean, marine plants do not have so much protection as terrestrial plants, as fish usually did not eat plants

Question 5

What was the primary cause to create phytochemicals in plants? What were the coping mechanisms (3)?

Answer 5

The ozone layer was not yet formed, surface algae had to protect themselves from sunlight, antioxidants were the main protection from UV light

• On land, plants had to survive desiccation in the air and exposure to UV waves from intense sunlight.
• WATER LOSS: developed a layer of epidermal cells coated by a waxy cuticle layer. (wax, cuticle, wood)
• UV RADIATION: Water served as a filter for direct sunlight.
• FLAVONOID PIGMENTS reflect UV wavelengths.

Question 6

What are the colors of anthocyanins and what do tannins do upon digestion in animals

Answer 6

• ANTHOCYANINS: Flavonoids that provide most of the blue, violet, and red pigments in plants.
• TANNINS: Astringent compounds that limit a plant’s palatability. Accumulates in the bark of woody species. Can bind to digestive enzymes and interfere with digestion. Can cause cancers in animals and people who are chronically exposed to tannins.

Question 7

Examples of physical defenses for a plant

Answer 7

•Physical Defenses

Bark, Waxy cuticles, Hard shells, Thorns, Spines, Trichomes

Question 8

Here are some chemicals defenses by the plant: alkaloids, opioids, glycol cyanide, cardiac glucosides, lectins, and oxalates. Why each of them is dangerous?

Answer 8

oAlkaloids: noxious odours, repellent tastes, excessive stimulation.

oOpioids: Lethargy

oGlycol Cyanide: Poison

oCardiac Glycosides: Poison

oLectins: Binds to carbohydrates

oOxalates: Binds minerals and causes damage to gut.

Question 9

What is jasmonates?

Answer 9

hormones that attract parasitoid insects to fight attackers.

Question 10

what is a mast year in nuts?

Answer 10

A mast year denotes a season in which various species of trees synchronize their reproduction and drop large amounts of fruit and/or nuts

Question 11

How to identify flavonoids structure?

Answer 11

Count the carbons: 6-3-6

Question 12

What is phenol?

Answer 12

Question 13

How does gallic acid look like and it is a monomer for ____

Answer 13

Monomer for tannic acid

Question 14

Wild yam is used for___

Answer 14

Mexican yam- discrupts estrogen cycle and used in contraceptives

Question 15

Answer 15

Flavonoid

Question 16

How humans new what parts of plant are safe to eat?

Answer 16

oGenerational Familiarity

oTrial & Error

oObserving animals

oProcessing & Transformation

Question 17

Alkaloids: taste and example

Answer 17

Bitter tasting; nicotine, caffeine, opium

Question 18

Use of allicin in garlic (applications)

Answer 18

Antimicrobial & Antifungal

Cardioprotective (inhibition of platelet aggregation, lipid-lowering)

Question 19

Mode of action of Allicin

Answer 19

•As H2S Donors

oAs precursors of HYDROGEN SULFIDE – a colourless, flammable, and toxic gas that smells like rotten eggs.

oH2S is a gaseous signaling molecule (gasotransmitter)

oH2S induces smooth muscle relaxation, dilates blood vessels. Explains garlic’s cardioproctective effects.

oCan react with thiol groups and can inactivate essential enzymes; Explains the antibacterial and antifungal activity.

•As Antioxidants

oOrganosulfur compounds inhibit peroxidation of lipids and possess radical scavenging activities.

Question 20

The origin of the vampire myth

Answer 20

• Origin of the vampire is the disease PORPHYRIA
• Diseases caused by irregularities in the production of heme.
• Some forms of the Porphyria cause sufferers to be sensitive to light and leads to disfigurement of the skin, including erosion of the lips and gums.
• This can lead to a corpse-like fanged appearance.
• People who suffer from Porphyria also have an intolerance to foods that have a high sulphur content…such as GARLIC

Question 21

The other ““mysterious” application of garlic

Answer 21

Evil eye, put garlic all over the house so bad spirits will not come

Question 22

What is purgative?

Answer 22

Strongly laxative in effect

Question 23

The term to say causing vomiting

Answer 23

EMETIC

Question 24

What is salicin (chemical class) and where it is found? What drug resulted from it?

Answer 24

•Salicin, an alcoholic B-glucoside, is commonly found in the bark of willows and poplars.

This eventually lead to the development of ASPIRIN (acetylsalicylic acid)

Question 25

Salix alba: what is it?

Answer 25

WHITE WILLOW

Question 26

Bioactive compound in white willow, uses

Answer 26

Salicin metabolized to salicylic acid

Uses: antiinflammatory

Question 27

Why sometimes consumption of white willow is preferable to aspirin? Hint: mention the pathway that it does not inhibit

Answer 27

•Recent clinical trials indicate that a high-potency standardized willow bark extract has analgesic activity, but with fewer side effects than standard drug treatments.

•

•Pharmacokinetic studies have demonstrated that this activity cannot be due to salicin alone and other yet unidentified constituents and mechanisms also probably contribute to the observed clinical effects.

•

•Exerts analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects by an uncertain mechanism, but unlike aspirin, is not a potent inhibitor of platelet aggregation or the enzyme cyclo-oxygenase (COX).

Question 28

The term: causing abortion

Answer 28

Abortifacient

Question 29

Prevents pregnancy: term

Answer 29

Contraceptive

Question 30

What is emmenagogue

Answer 30

Stimulates or increases menstrual flow

Question 31

What is tincture?

Answer 31

Made by dissolving the plant in alcohol

Question 32

How to distinguish queen Anne lace and poison hemlock?

Answer 32

Red dot in the center

Question 33

Part used in daucus carota;

Answer 33

Part Used Seeds

Question 34

Bioactive compound in Queen Anne’s lace, compound class

Answer 34

Carotol

Sesquiterpene alcohol

Question 35

Explain the mode of action in detail for Queen Anne’s Lace

Answer 35

• Seeds contain steroids, flavonoids, alkaloids, and polyphenols.
• Seed extracts interfere in the estrus cycle by having a negative impact on the hypothalaumus - pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis.
• FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone) is depleted, causing a depletion in estradiol.

The egg can’t come out of the ovary

Question 36

What is the difference between infusion and decoction?

Answer 36

• INFUSION – A drink prepared by soaking the leaves of a plant in water.
• DECOCTION - Extraction by boiling herbal or plant material to dissolve the chemicals of the material. (Herb+cold water and then boil)

Question 37

Seeping a tea bag in hot water is an example of

A. Decoction

B.Extraction

C. Tincture

D.Infusion

Answer 37

D