#26 - Apr 2019 - Garden Stuff - © Sandy Lang - slang@xtra.co.nz
PLANT CHEMISTRY March/April: Early/mid autumn. Days shorten and cool. Soon time for the final summer-crop harvest. Then, tidy up, fertilise (sheep pellets) and plant winter crops asap. Get them in before the cold. Traditional winter crops do best - silverbeet, cabbage, kale, broad beans… These greens are exceptionally good for us…!
Autotrophic: Plants are autotrophic (literally ‘self’ ‘feeding’ = they make their own food). They make all the myriad complex chemicals they need for life, from just a few, very simple ingredients – CO2, H2O and sunlight (energy), plus a handful of soil minerals.
Primary metabolites: What are these complex life chemicals? The basic ones are the primary metabolites (PMs) – sugars (starch=energy, cellulose=structure), lipids (oils=energy) and proteins (enzymes=little factories).
Secondary metabolites: Plants also make a huge number (200,000+) of ‘smart’ chemicals. These are the secondary metabolites (SMs). The SMs are small in amount and secondary in importance but they help plants survive and thrive in a hostile world.
Among other key functions, the SMs help protect plants against stress - biotic stresses (insect and microbial pests and diseases) and abiotic stresses (UV-light, drought, frost, heat).
Heterotrophic: We humans are heterotrophic (literally ‘other’ ‘feeding’). We can’t make PMs or SMs but instead we get these second-hand by eating plants (or third-hand by eating animals that eat plants).
•The PMs are good for us because they make our bodies strong and give us energy to live.
•And the SMs are good for us because these ‘smart’ chemicals do the work in our bodies, they were designed to do in the plant.
•So, the SMs help us fight off many health conditions including bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic diseases, cancers and heart problems…
•The SMs also make life worth living - giving us tea, coffee and chocolate…!
Diet: Our diet is different from that of our distant ancestors. It's... •Too rich in the high-energy PMs and too poor in the ‘smart’ SMs. Hence, we tend to be overweight and unhealthy. •Many SMs are lost when we process foods (so, process less). •Most SMs are in the food bits we reject and they are hardly at all in the food bits we eat (so, eat fruit skins and seeds). •Cultivated fruits are larger than wild-type fruits. Small fruits have relatively more skin and less flesh (simple 3D geometry) and, hence, contain more SMs and less PMs per kg (so, eat small fruits). •The winter greens are low in PMs and high in SMs (so, eat your greens). QED…!___________________________________
PLANT CHEMISTRY March/April: Early/mid autumn. Days shorten and cool. Soon time for the final summer-crop harvest. Then, tidy up, fertilise (sheep pellets) and plant winter crops asap. Get them in before the cold. Traditional winter crops do best - silverbeet, cabbage, kale, broad beans… These greens are exceptionally good for us…!
Autotrophic: Plants are autotrophic (literally ‘self’ ‘feeding’ = they make their own food). They make all the myriad complex chemicals they need for life, from just a few, very simple ingredients – CO2, H2O and sunlight (energy), plus a handful of soil minerals.
Primary metabolites: What are these complex life chemicals? The basic ones are the primary metabolites (PMs) – sugars (starch=energy, cellulose=structure), lipids (oils=energy) and proteins (enzymes=little factories).
Secondary metabolites: Plants also make a huge number (200,000+) of ‘smart’ chemicals. These are the secondary metabolites (SMs). The SMs are small in amount and secondary in importance but they help plants survive and thrive in a hostile world.
Among other key functions, the SMs help protect plants against stress - biotic stresses (insect and microbial pests and diseases) and abiotic stresses (UV-light, drought, frost, heat).
Heterotrophic: We humans are heterotrophic (literally ‘other’ ‘feeding’). We can’t make PMs or SMs but instead we get these second-hand by eating plants (or third-hand by eating animals that eat plants).
•The PMs are good for us because they make our bodies strong and give us energy to live.
•And the SMs are good for us because these ‘smart’ chemicals do the work in our bodies, they were designed to do in the plant.
•So, the SMs help us fight off many health conditions including bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic diseases, cancers and heart problems…
•The SMs also make life worth living - giving us tea, coffee and chocolate…!
Diet: Our diet is different from that of our distant ancestors. It's... •Too rich in the high-energy PMs and too poor in the ‘smart’ SMs. Hence, we tend to be overweight and unhealthy. •Many SMs are lost when we process foods (so, process less). •Most SMs are in the food bits we reject and they are hardly at all in the food bits we eat (so, eat fruit skins and seeds). •Cultivated fruits are larger than wild-type fruits. Small fruits have relatively more skin and less flesh (simple 3D geometry) and, hence, contain more SMs and less PMs per kg (so, eat small fruits). •The winter greens are low in PMs and high in SMs (so, eat your greens). QED…!___________________________________