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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page paper discussing the phytochemical nicotine. More than 50,000 phytochemicals have been identified in angiosperms; nicotine is only one. It appears to have evolved as a protection device against herbivores, bacteria and fungi, but the struggle that farmers make against tobacco hornworm and blue mold indicate that nicotine is not always successful as a deterrent against attack. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: CC6_KSnicotine.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
more than a century ago that German biologist Ernst Stahl suggested that phytochemicals could serve the same general functions as physical thorns and spines, that they may have developed in
a co-evolutionary path with some plants as a means of protection and self defense (Berenbaum, 2000). One of the native hollies, Ilex vomitoria, makes people regret eating its leaves.
Diffenbachia spp. are called "dumb cane" for a reason: anyone ingesting its leaves are rendered unable to speak for a time. Marijuana and coffee possess phytochemicals that
many humans actively pursue. Nicotine is such a phytochemical. It appears to have evolved for the purpose of preventing or deterring attack
by herbivores, bacteria and fungi. Need for Defense Plants are at a decided disadvantage in
defending themselves against predators. Animals can run, fight, hide, "play possum." "Because they are mostly firmly rooted to the ground, plants cannot escape predators by running away ...
the principal defense that plants have against being eaten is the production of toxic substances: phytochemicals" (Berenbaum, 2000). This is not an isolated
quirk of the plant kingdom. Rather, it is so common that more than "50,000 different kinds of toxins have been isolated from angiosperm (flowering) plants alone" (Berenbaum, 2000).
Nicotine is only one of those more than 50,000 phytochemicals that have been identified. Not all of these phytochemicals are used by humans,
but those that are used generally are of more than only passing significance. These substances that have evolved with the plants "can function as mild stimulants, effective medicines, or
...