Phytochemistry Flashcards
What is the lock and key hypothesis?
It means that our biochemical mechanisms are co-dependent on plants around us, because plants and humans have co-evolved over millions of years from a single Eukaric organism and humans are therefore bio chemically dependend on plants.
humans further evolved using the plants that were available to them in their external environment to live
the internal biochemical mechanisms of humans then evolved to mirror the outside world. Therefore, our biochemical mechanisms are co-dependent on plants around us,
only chemicals of a certain specific shape and size can bind and react to this substrate through its receptor site to make a biochemical reaction occur. It might be easy using this analogy to visualize how phytochemicals and our biochemical process might have evolved together where the locks and keys were always evolving to fit each other.
What is a Carbonyl group?
CO
a carbon molecule bound to an oxygen molecule with a double bond
What is a Hydroxyl group?
OH
oxygen molecule bound to a Hydrogen molecule
What is a Methyl group?
CH3
Carbon bound to three Hydrogen molecules
What is a Carboxyl group?
COOH
a Carbonyl group bound with a Hydroxyl group
What is an Amine group?
NH2
a Nitrogen molecule attached to two hydrogen groups
