Plants and bugs make special things.
These things help them live. Some help a plant stay safe. Others can help people feel better. We use them as medicine.
Do you like to explore nature?
Living things make many things.
Some things help a plant grow. Other things are for special jobs. These are called special products.
They help plants stay safe from bugs. They can also help plants fight germs. Some of these products are used as medicine. People use them to feel better. They also use them for flavors. Nature is full of these helpful things.
Living things make many different substances. Some are needed for basic growth. We call these primary metabolites. Others are made for special jobs. These are called secondary metabolites.
These special products help life survive. They can help plants fight germs. They also help plants stay safe from bugs. Some help plants deal with sun damage. These substances help life interact with the world.
Plants make many types of these products. One group is called terpenes. They are made of small units. Another group is called phenolics. These are very common in plants. Some are found in grapes.
Another group is called alkaloids. These contain nitrogen. They can affect how animal bodies work. Some alkaloids come from the opium poppy.
Humans use these natural products too. Many medicines come from them. A drug called taxol comes from yew tree bark. It helps treat some cancers. Scientists also find medicines in herbs. These help people feel better when they are sick.
All living things, like plants, animals, and bacteria, make special substances. Some are needed for basic growth and life. We call these primary metabolites. Others are made for special jobs like defense or communication. These are called secondary metabolites, or specialized metabolites. They are not needed for a living thing to grow or reproduce. Instead, they help an organism survive in its environment. They can help a plant fight off germs or stop bugs from eating it.
Secondary metabolites work in many different ways. They can help plants deal with stress, like damage from the sun. Some act as medicines to fight viruses or fungi. They also help living things interact with each other. For example, they can help with pollination or competition for food. Some creatures even learn to use these chemicals for themselves. Monarch butterflies eat milkweed plants that have toxic chemicals. The butterflies are not hurt by the toxins. They actually store them in their bodies to stay safe from predators.
People have studied these natural products for a long time. The term secondary metabolite was first used by Albrecht Kossel. He won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1910. Later, a Polish botanist named Friedrich Czapek described them in 1940. He said they were end products of how plants use nitrogen.
Scientists group these substances by how they are built. One large group is called terpenes. They are made of small units called isoprene. Another group is called phenolics, which are very common in plants. You can find some phenolics, like resveratrol, in grapes and blueberries.
A third group is called alkaloids. These contain nitrogen and can affect how animal bodies work. Some examples are caffeine and nicotine. There are also glucosinolates, which contain sulfur and nitrogen. You can find these in vegetables like broccoli.
Humans use many secondary metabolites as medicines. A drug called taxol comes from the bark of the Pacific Yew tree. It is used to treat many types of cancer.
Another important medicine is artemisinin. It comes from the herb Artemisia annua. A scientist named Tu Youyou won a Nobel Prize in 2015 for her work with it. We also get medicines like morphine and codeine from the opium poppy. Morphine was discovered by Friedrich Sertürner in 1804. Codeine was found by Pierre Jean Robiquet in 1832. These chemicals help people manage pain in many different ways.
Secondary metabolites, also known as specialized metabolites or natural products, are organic compounds produced by lifeforms. These include bacteria, archaea, fungi, animals, and plants. Unlike primary metabolites, these compounds are not directly required for an organism's normal growth, development, or reproduction. Instead, they serve as tools to manage ecological interactions. These interactions can provide a selective advantage by increasing an organism's ability to survive or reproduce.
These compounds work by mediating various relationships in nature. They often manage antagonistic interactions, such as competition between species or predation. They also support mutualistic interactions, such as pollination or resource sharing. For example, plants use secondary metabolites to defend against herbivory, which is when animals eat them. They also provide defense against pathogens through antibiotic, antifungal, and antiviral properties. Some, like phenylpropanoids, protect plants from ultraviolet (UV) damage from the sun.
Ecological relationships with these chemicals can be quite complex. In one forest, four different species of arboreal marsupial folivores reacted differently to a secondary metabolite in eucalypts. This suggests that different metabolites can create different ecological niches for herbivores. Some species even evolve to use these chemicals for their own benefit. Monarch butterflies, for instance, eat milkweed plants containing toxic cardiac glycosides. The butterflies are resistant to these toxins and actually sequester them in their bodies. This process helps deter their own predators.
Scientists have studied these substances for many years. The term "secondary metabolite" was first coined by Albrecht Kossel. He was a Nobel Prize laureate in medicine and physiology in 1910. About thirty years later, a Polish botanist named Friedrich Czapek provided more detail. He described secondary metabolites as the end products of nitrogen metabolism. While many of these compounds are restricted to specific lineages or species, horizontal transfer of entire pathways can occur in bacteria and fungi.
Plants organize their secondary metabolites into four major chemical classes. The first class is terpenes, which are composed of isoprene units. Terpenes are hydrocarbons, while terpenoids are oxygenated hydrocarbons. They are classified by the number of isoprene units in their structure. For example, a monoterpene has 10 carbon atoms, while a diterpene has 20.
The second class is phenolics, which are the most abundant secondary metabolites in plants. These contain an aromatic ring structure with one or more hydroxyl groups. Examples range from simple phenolic acids to complex tannins.
The third class is alkaloids, which are nitrogen-containing basic compounds. These are often derived from plant sources and can affect the central nervous system of animals. The fourth class includes glucosinolates, which contain both nitrogen and sulfur.
Humanity has used these natural products for medicine since ancient times. The herb Artemisia annua contains artemisinin, which was used in Chinese traditional medicine over 2,000 years ago. Scientist Tu Youyou was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2015 for her work with this antimalarial compound. Another vital medicine is paclitaxel, the active compound in the drug Taxol. Taxol was first isolated in 1973 from the bark of the Pacific Yew tree. It is used in chemotherapy to treat various cancers, including ovarian and breast cancer.
Alkaloids from the opium poppy also provide significant medical benefits. Friedrich Sertürner discovered morphine, the first active alkaloid extracted from the poppy, in 1804. It is used as a strong analgesic to manage pain and shortness of breath. In 1832, Pierre Jean Robiquet isolated codeine, which is used for mild pain and coughing. While morphine is highly addictive and strictly controlled, codeine is considered safer because it has only 0.1 to 0.15 of the strength of morphine. Finally, the alkaloid atropine, used since the fourth century B.C., is used today as an antidote to organophosphate poisoning.
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