So you thought plants were working for you?

Not really.

Plant secondary metabolites are chemicals present in the plants that are not required for the basic survival, they are not related to respiration, photosynthesis, cell structure, cell division etc etc.

Secondary metabolites are there to fight predators or to defend against bacteria and virus or as antioxidants.

What is certain is that the plant is not making secondary metabolites for your benefit. In fact, you may be one of the predators the plant is fighting against!

So, when you are grateful to the plant that makes vanilla pods for the lovely vanilla extract you use in cupcakes or the apocynin you are using as anti-age, that’s OK, but the Vanilla planifolia plant in the garden is using extra energy and nutrients in the biochemical pathway required to make it for some “reason”. This is to say, this costly pathway evolved, was selected and has been kept because it is useful.  Scientists may not know yet what the purpose is, but it is there not to please you. It may be to attract pollinators or as an antioxidant (plants can suffer oxidative stress juts like us).

There is a branch of chemistry, chemical ecology, that is dedicated to research the interaction between organisms and environment and the role of chemicals in this interaction.

An example: plants can resist herbivores using direct and indirect chemical defense. Plants can deter or poison hervibores using toxic phytochemicals. Other plants may wish to attract predators of the herbivores and they can do this by by releasing volatile organic compounds. To be able to respond in the right way, the plant has to recognize the enemy, and  recognition has to elicit the appropriate response which may involve gene activation. All this may happen within minutes of the attack and the signals involved in the pathway can be the production of ROS* (reactive oxygen species) or changes in the concentration of intracellular calcium,  events that start a cascade of chemical reactions.

This is a very interesting field of research and I don’t know much about it. I know, however, that plants don’t produce interesting chemicals to please us. Eventually I am sure we will learn what is the role of apocynin in the plants that make it and I am sure it will be very interesting. I will keep you posted!