1 Plants and People. 2 People Use Plants as Sources of: Food* Beverages* Medicines/Drugs* Poisons* Flavorings Fragrances Building Materials Dyes Aesthetic

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Plants and People

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People Use Plants as Sources of:

• Food*• Beverages*• Medicines/Drugs*• Poisons*• Flavorings• Fragrances• Building Materials• Dyes• Aesthetic Enjoyment*

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Homo sapiens (archaic)

Neanderthal

200,000 100,000 present

Homo sapiens (modern)

Agriculture

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The most economically important family of flowering plants ...

oats

rice wheat

sugar cane

bamboo

PoaceaeThe Grass Family

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The most economically important family of flowering plants ...

oats

rice wheat

sugar cane

bamboo

50% of humanities' calories come from the grass family!

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Wheat (Triticum aestivum) was first domesticated in Mesopotamia

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Einkorn BreadDurum Emmer

Triticum spp.

Triticum monococcum T. turgidum T. aestivum

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Global Wheat Production, 2005

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CoffeeCoffee(Coffea arabica)

Rubiaceae - the Coffee Family

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Caffeine, an alkaloid, is a CNS stimulant: it increases the heart rate and blood pressure, stimulates respiration, and constricts blood vessels. It is also an appetite suppressant and a mild diuretic.

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So what is it doing in the plant?

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According to Michael Pollan (Botany of Desire), caffeine “unhinges an insect’s nervous system andkills its appetite.”

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are needed to see this picture.

Coffee grows best in cool highlands; it is intolerant of frost.

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Coffee leaves are shiny, simple, and opposite. Flowers are small, white, and fragrant, in axillary clusters.

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Coffee HistoryCoffee History

According to legend, coffee drinking began almost 12 centuries ago, when an Abyssinian goat herd named Khalid noticed the antics of his frisky herd of goats …

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Clement VIII



Pope from January 30, 1592 to March 3, 1605

Coffee afficionados claim that the spread of its popularity is due to Pope Clement VIII's influence. Being pressured by his advisers to declare coffee the "bitter invention of Satan" because of its popularity among Muslims, he instead declared that, "This devil's drink is so good... we should cheat the devil by baptizing it."

24Mad dog in an English coffeehouse

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Roasting

Roasting is done in cylinders that simultaneously heat and tumble the seeds.

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Coffee beans are roastedat temperatures of about400-450 degrees F. forabout 10-15 minutes.

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Coffee is the world’s second-most heavily traded commodity.

Unfortunately, the grower sees little of the profit.



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Plants in Modern Medicine



31Garden Foxglove: Digitalis purpurea

(Snapdragon Family)

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William Withering1741-1799

An Account of the Foxglove and Some of Its Medical Uses: With Practical Remarks on Dropsy and Other Diseases, 1785



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Erasmus Darwin,grandfather of Charles Darwin

Digitalis

Bolster'd with down, amid a thousand wants, Pale Dropsy rears his bloated form, and pants; "Quench me ye cool pellucid rills," he cries, Wets his parched tongue and rolls his hollow eyes.… Divine Hygeia from the bending sky Descending, listens to his piercing cry; Assumes bright Digitalis dress and air; Her ruby cheek, white neck and raven hair;

O'er him she waves the serpent-wreathed wand, Cheers with her voice and raises with her hand Warms with rekindling bloom his visage wan, And charms the shapeless monster into man.

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1928 - The glycosides digitoxin and digitaliswere isolated. These have been determined to have a strong effect on the heart muscle.



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Congestive Heart Failure

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Digitalis purpureaFoxglove

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D-tubocurarine

Strychnos toxifera Loganiaceae

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Curare is used as a poison with which to tip darts shot through a blowgun

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D-tubocurarine

Recently, D-tubocurarine has been used to relax the heart muscles during open heart surgery.

One man’s meat is another man’s poison.DRUG

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Plants in Art and Literature

Madonna of the Rose Bushesca. 1440

Lochner, Stefan

Georgia O’Keefe

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The force that through the green fuse drives the flower

Drives my green age …

-Dylan Thomas,(1934)

Documents

1 Plants and People. 2 People Use Plants as Sources of: Food* Beverages* Medicines/Drugs* Poisons* Flavorings Fragrances Building Materials Dyes Aesthetic