Plants: Lecture 1 Flashcards
Agriculture has had a huge impact on what?
Humans and their relationships with one another and the world around them.
What is agriculture?
It is the domestication of two main groups: plants (wheats and other grasses) and animals (cattle, goats, chickens, etc.).
Where and when was it invented?
It was invented on a large scale nearly 10000 years ago in multiple locations, the main one being Mesopotamia (Iraq).
What did agriculture allow?
It allowed the formation of permanent villages, towns and cities, as people settled down being able to not have to follow their food.
Other consequences of agriculture?
- Larger families and consequently larger populations
- A diverse economy
- Less cooperation due to new and different responsibilities among ppl.
- Different socioeconomic classes due to cities being formed
- the separation of humans from the rest of pure nature environments
- As time went on, large scale war would be powered by agriculture.
Chocolate (Theobroma cacao) ?
-Chocolate is made from the seeds of the chocolate tree
- Chocolate seeds come from the tree and are used to reproduce
- Each seed becomes a new tree when properly fertilized/planted
Seeds, Flowers and Fruits?
Seeds come from fruit and fruit comes from flowers.
- Each fruit comes from a single flower
Oil for cars?
The oil that is burning in cars (fuel) is extracted from plant seeds.
Rubber (Rubber Tree: Hevea brasiliensis)?
If you scored the bark of a rubber tree, rubbery material would come out, which can be treated and heated to form rubber.
- Originally from Brazil/South America but now in Asia to protect from South American parasites.
- it is now 2/3 synthetic and 1/3 from rubber plantations.
Cotton (Gossypium spp.)?
Cotton that is used for clothing comes from the cell walls of a plant. It is made of cellulose (a very common polymer).
What kind of compounds are drugs?
They are plant’s secondary compounds, meaning that they are not needed for metabolism and used as a defence mechanism instead to protect from bacteria or insects.
- Many drugs are made synthetically now.
Secondary compounds?
Compounds that are not necessary for metabolism, growth, or development.
- There are roughly 200,000 drug compounds estimated to exist.
Quinine?
Found in the bark of the Cinchona tree (Cinchona pubescent & other spp.). They are from South America, but have been introduced widely to the rest of the world.
- It is a treatment for malaria (Europe)
- Other uses include: anemia, muscle spasms, cancer treatment, and bitterness of tonic water.
Caffeine (Coffea arabica)?
The coffee tree makes the beans that we grind into coffee. From Yemen, Ethiopia (originally). They grow from a shrub, to a fruit, to a seed, to the coffee that we produce and drink.
Aspirin?
Aspirin is made of Acetylsalicylic acid. It is used to treat pain, fever, and inflammation and also used as a blood thinner. It comes from/is found in willow species’ from the genus Salix. It comes from the bark and the leaves of the willow tree.
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)?
Hashish and Marijuana (Cannabis sativa) are used as a recreational/medicinal drug and comes from the plant’s leaves.
Nicotine (tobacco Nicotiana tabacum)?
An alkaloid substance that comes from the leaves of the tobacco plant.
Opium Poppy (Papaver)?
The origin of medicinal and recreational (hard) drugs such as Opium, Heroin, Morphine, and Codeine.
Taxol (yew: Taxus)?
Taxol is the most used cancer treatment/ anti-cancer drug. The evergreen is the source of the taxol. It helps with chemotherapy treatment for ovarian, breast, and lung cancer.
Importance of plants?
Plants make the oxygen and energy used by other components of terrestrial ecosystems.
How much oxygen is made by land plants?
Land plants make half of the oxygen in the world, the other half being made by photosynthetic marine organisms.
Importance of plants: 6 reasons?
- Energy: food (agriculture)
- Energy: fossil fuels
- Clothing
- Drugs, medicines
- Ecosystem Functioning
- Biodiversity
What is botany?
The study of plants - studying a group of plants.
Branches of botany?
- Evolution
- Ecology (community/population)
- Molecular genetics
- Mathematical modelling
- morphology
- anatomy
- physiology
- cell biology
- systematics
- development