Plants and Life

Humans and plant-life have been interacting since the dawn of human society. Plants hold a very significant and influential role in our history; being the subject of wars, source of food, clothing, and expression.

Plants have been known to be valuable resource that made civilizations wage wars for the right to its sources; one example is the First Opium War ( $1839 - 1842$ ).

Plants is also a very essential source of food for many if not all civilizations; about $95%$ of our food comes from only twenty species of plants; $80%$ of our food comes from six of those species of plants.

Plastics, clothing, oils, adhesives, and other useful components are derived from plants in one way or another.

Botany

The massive role that plants play in our society a well as the general curiosity we possess for plant spawned the field of botany.

Botany is an exciting and thriving science that deals with all things plants.

The term botany is derived from the greek words botane, meaning plant or grass; and botanikos, meaning herbs;

A Botanist’s View of Life

Just like other scientists, botanists share an insatiable curiosity for the major questions in their fields.

“How are plants constructed?”

“How do plants work?”

“How did plants get here?”

“Why are plants important?”

The four questions above are the general questions that most questions in botany fall under. To answer these questions, botanists, like other scientists use the Scientific Method.

Scientific Method

The scientific method represents a significant shift from earlier approaches to understanding the world, which were largely based on religion and speculative philosophy.

Before we used to use religious methods and speculative philosophy to understand the world; one relied on divine intervention and revelations rather than observable evidence and the other relied on logical reasoning and philosophical postulations.

Both methods are insufficient in finding consistent results for explaining everyday phenomena; thus why we developed the scientific method.

The scientific method has four major aspects. Those aspects are the following

Source of information
- This aspect emphasizes deriving knowledge from documented observations and controlled experiments rather than accepting claims without verification.
Study of Phenomena
- Focuses on tangible and observable phenomena.
Constancy and Universality
- Assumes that natural laws are constant and universal.
Basis of Skepticism
- Embraces skepticism by being open to new evidence and willing to revise conclusions.

The scientific process mainly involves a two part process, those parts are the following:

Observation and Hypothesis Formation
- Begins with observations, followed by experimentation to test hypotheses. A hypothesis must be testable and make predictions that can be validated or refuted through further experiments.
Testing and Validation
- Hypotheses are tested against observations and experiments. Successful predictions support the hypothesis, while failures indicate that it may be incorrect. The scientific method values hypotheses that can predict future outcomes accurately.

Origin and Evolution of Plants

Life on Earth began around 3.5 billion years ago with simple organisms similar to modern bacteria. Over billions of years, cells evolved in complexity through natural selection. This process involves slight variations in offspring, where those with advantageous traits are more likely to survive and reproduce, passing on these traits to future generations. New features arise from mutations, and natural selection determines which are preserved or discarded.

What is Natural Selection

Natural selection refers to the phenomenon that is the driving mechanism of evolution. It is essentially how nature naturally selects which animals get to live and spread their genetic traits.

If an ecosystem’s only viable and sustainable source of food are tall trees; animals would die out except for those with long necks or other capabilities to gain nutrients from trees. Those animals that don’t die of starvation are then able to breed and pass on their traits that allow them to eat and survive in that ecosystem. This is what natural selection is.

Key Evolutionary Milestones

In the entire timeline of plant life, the following are examples of key evolutionary milestones:

Photosynthesis
- About 2.8 billion years ago, cyanobacteria developed oxygen-producing photosynthesis, which later became widespread in green plants.
Cell Structure
- Cells evolved more complex structures, including organelles with specialized functions. A major development was the formation of the nucleus, leading to the classification of cells as prokaryotes (without nuclei) or eukaryotes (with nuclei).
Eukaryotic Diversity
- Eukaryotes diversified into various forms. Some acquired mitochondria (energy production) or chloroplasts (photosynthesis). This led to the evolution of algae, plants, protozoans, fungi, and animals.

Because of these key evolutionary milestones, all organisms diversified into three domains of life:

Bacteria
Archaea
Eukarya
- Includes kingdoms Plantae (plants), Animalia (animals), Myceteae (fungi), and protists.

Scientific Names in Botany

Scientific names are a means to specify a group of organisms (in botany’s case: plants) into names that will not cause confusion.

Ex. Cherries bear the scientific name: Prunus avium.

Take note the following rules.

Scientific names are written in italics when types.
Scientific names are underlined when written by hand.
A scientific name consists of a generic name (this comes first) and a special epithet (this comes last).
The generic name must have its first letter capitalized.
The special epithet must be in lowercase.

Ang Sampung Halamang Gamot

Also known as The 10 Herbal Medicines approved by DOH (Department of Health).

The 10 Herbal Medicines are the following:

Sambong (Blumea balsamifera)
- Pre-clinical
  - anti-cancer
  - anti-genotoxicity
  - anti-mutagenicity
  - antimicrobial
  - anti-obesity
  - antioxidant
  - dissolution of kidney stones
- Clinical
  - diuretic
  - antiuricemic (Philippine setting)
Akalpulko (Senna alata)
- Pre-clinical
  - anti-allergic
  - anthelmintic
  - moquito repllent
  - insecticidal
  - snake bites
- Clinical
  - antifungal
  - antiscabies
Niyog-niyogan (Quisqualis indica)
- Pre-clinical
  - antipyretic
  - antihyperlipidemic
  - anti-inflammatory
- Clinical
  - anthelmintic
Tsaang Gubat (Carmona retusa)
- Pre-clinical
  - anti-allergic
  - antidiarrheal
  - antimicrobial
  - antimutagenic
- Clinical
  - caries-preventative
  - antispasmodic (Philippine setting)
Ampalaya (Momordica charantia)
- Pre-clinical
  - antibacterial
  - anti-diabetic
  - anti-cancer
  - anti-inflammatory
  - anti-tuberculosis
  - analgesic
  - purgative
  - antiviral
- Clinical
  - antimetabolic syndrome
  - anti-diabetes
Lagundi (Vitex negundo)
- Pre-clinical
  - antimutagenic
  - depressant on cardiac function
- Clinical
  - antitussive (Philippine setting)
Ulasimang Bato (Peperomia pellucida)
- Pre-clinical
  - analgesic
  - antibacterial
  - antihyperuricemic
  - anti-inflammatory
  - antioxidant
- Clinical
  - antibacterial
  - anti-cancer
  - antioxidant
  - depressant
  - anti-gout (Philippine setting)
Bawang (Allium sativum)
- Pre-clinical
  - Antihyperlipidemic
  - Antihypertensive
  - Fibrinolytic
  - antiplatelet
  - hypoglycemic
  - anti-inflammatory
  - antispasmodic
  - antimicrobial
- Clinical
  - Hyperlipidemia
  - hypertension
  - arteriosclerosis
Bayabas (Psidium guajava)
- Pre-clinical
  - analgesic
  - antidiarrheal
  - antihyperglycemic
  - anti-inflammatory
  - antipyretic
  - antimicrobial
  - antioxidant
  - antispasmodic
  - antitussive
  - hemostatic effects
  - inotropic effects
- Clinical
  - gingivitis
  - rotaviral
  - acute diarrhea
Yerba Buena (Mentha cordifolia)
- Pre-clinical
  - analgesis
  - antimicrobial
  - antiparasitic
  - antineoplastic
- Clinical
  - analgesic (Philippine setting)

JXT-Pharma-Notes

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Introduction to Botany