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by Erin Albrecht on April 25th, 2005

Erin Albrecht

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What are "secondary compounds"?

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  • by 512souro on April 27th, 2005

    512souro

    Secondary compounds are found in plants as products from bio-chemical pathways that are offshoots of basic metabolism. They are called econdary compounds because the compounds were not part of primary metabolism.
    They can be produced from metabolism of nitrogen or carbohydrates : -

    Example : -
    From sugar metabolism -
    Waxes, Terpenes, Steroids.

    From amino acid metabolism -
    Alkaloids, Phenolics, Cardiac Glycosides.

    Originally, these compounds were thought to be by-products of metabolism or "waste products". But this doesn't make sense as they are present in high concentrations and quite expensive to make as far as energy and materials are concerned. So, the recent theory is, they are involved in plant defense from both animals and insects.

    Types of defense are : -

    => Texture and composition of plant surface.
    => Anatomical structures such as thorns and resin ducts.
    => Toxic chemical compounds.

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