BI266 Lecture 9: BI266 - Poisonous and Allergenic Plants
Document Summary
Reasons plants contain poisonous or potentially poisonous compounds. Plants cannot move - they have to sit there and take it but doesn"t mean they are defenseless - instead, plants are very diverse chemical factories and resort to chemical warfare. All things are poison and nothing is without poison, only the dose permits something not to be poisonous . As the dose increases, the toxic effect likelihood enhances. Poisonous plants were used to dispose of one"s enemies. Socrates received capital punishment for his teaching methods and forced to drink a cup of poison hemlock. Toxicity is due to cicutoxin, which leads to violent convulsions. Curare is used by south american tribes to capture prey. Curare means poison and is a poisonous resin produced from strychnos toxifera or. Compared to animals which have motility and more active defenses, plants generally have more toxic chemicals for defense. Poisonous (toxic) plants: alkaloids (bitter compounds, contain nitrogen atoms) Yew (taxus baccata) = taxine (sudden death)
