Toxins
Toxins are present in plants and foods that we eat. Do toxins have a purpose besides simply making us sick, and if so what is their purpose? In this paper, I will focus on how toxins affect our body and how toxins evolved over the years. Research has shown that toxins are a plants defense against herbivores in their effort to survive (Nesse and Williams, 1995). There are countless toxins present because herbivores quickly adapt to toxins and this requires plants to make different toxins in the race to survive (Nesse and Williams, 1995). Adaptation in toxin production does come at a cost to plants. Sumner states that tannins cost up to 30 percent of the dry weight of a sugar maple leaf. Tannins provide protection for the plant, but at a considerable price. According to Wilson, more research is needed to understand the cost of the evolution of toxins in plants. Nesse and Williams state that plants can generally have high toxin levels or rapid growth. Thus fast growing plants are usually safer for herbivores to devour than slow growing plants. Likewise, the more important a part of a plant is for its reproduction, the more likely it is to be toxic. For example, sweet fruit is not toxic,
Nesse and Williams quote a book by Timothy Jones who hypothesizes that the more our bodies are exposed to toxins, the better prepared our bodies will be to fight toxins. Turlings, et Al also state that "predator attraction in self preservation is a common phenomenon". It was very interesting to learn how plants can actually communicate in their efforts to survive against herbivore predators by using toxins. I never considered before the evolutionary reasons for the existence of toxins as well as their potential benefits for curing diseases such as cancer. Our ability to tolerate toxins apparently changes with time. Acacias and cecropias grow special structures to shelter and feed ants with the ants protecting the plants against herbivore predators in return. I hope someday to be able to do further research on toxins and their benefits in the war against cancer. melanogaster to insecticides is directly related to their exposure to these chemicals. She suggests we should eat what our body craves and only when we are physiologically hungry. According to a study by Duncan and Gordon, "pen-fed animals chose foods that maximize growth and other beneficial factors when given food choices". A prime example is the common fruit fly, Drosophilia melanogaster. The corn seedlings emitted terpenoids only hours after caterpillars started damaging the plants. An example of this is a green apple causing an upset stomach, but when the apple is ripe and the seed is ready for planting, it causes no ill effects (Nesse and Williams, 1995). Turlings, et Al suggest, "a form of communication may be present between plants and the third tropic level evidenced by the signaling of plants to protective insects".
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