Thanks to a symbiotic fungus, many species of morning glories contain elements of powerful psychedelic drugs, according to a new Tulane University study published in the journal Communications Biology.
Plants & Animals
Dec 22, 2021
0
577
(PhysOrg.com) -- New research has confirmed that mice have the biochemical pathways required to manufacture morphine from intermediates. Morphine is a powerful drug usually derived from the opium poppy, but scientists have ...
Humans have long taken advantage of the huge variety of medicinal compounds produced by plants. Now MIT chemists have found a new way to expand plants' pharmaceutical repertoire by genetically engineering them to produce ...
Biochemistry
Nov 3, 2010
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1
Tropane alkaloids are a particular class of plant-derived compounds that have been exploited by mankind since the domestication of medicinal plants. The distribution of these alkaloids is scattered amongst the flowering plants ...
Biochemistry
Nov 21, 2022
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168
(PhysOrg.com) -- Castoreum, the dried scent glands of the Canadian beaver, was once one of the most valuable scent components derived from animals. Castoreum contains a complex mixture of substances, including a number of ...
Feb 16, 2009
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1
(PhysOrg.com) -- Ten years ago, William Fenical of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography isolated from an ocean-living fungus a compound that has since shown the ability to kill cancer cells in the lab. Now, for the first ...
Biochemistry
Apr 26, 2009
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0
Organic chemists have found a new way of synthesizing multiple complex organic molecules that until now have needed to be synthesized using time-consuming methods. The new strategy, which mimics natural biosynthesis methods, ...
A "robber frog" whose body is just 10 millimetres (three-eighths of an inch) long eats toxic mites and exudes their poison on its skin to deter predators, scientists reported on Wednesday.
Plants & Animals
Nov 3, 2010
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0
Since its accidental introduction into the United States from South America in the 1930s, the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, has spread throughout the southern United States, decimating small-animal populations, ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 3, 2014
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0
The next time you take aspirin for a headache, thank a willow tree. Salicylic acid, a compound chemically similar to aspirin, is found in willow tree bark and is made by the plant as a chemical defense against pathogens. ...
Biotechnology
Nov 1, 2011
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0
Alkaloids are naturally occurring chemical compounds containing basic nitrogen atoms. The name derives from the word alkaline and was used to describe any nitrogen-containing base. Alkaloids are produced by a large variety of organisms, including bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals and are part of the group of natural products (also called secondary metabolites). Many alkaloids can be purified from crude extracts by acid-base extraction. Many alkaloids are toxic to other organisms. They often have pharmacological effects and are used as medications, as recreational drugs, or in entheogenic rituals. Examples are the local anesthetic and stimulant cocaine, the stimulant caffeine, nicotine, the analgesic morphine, or the antimalarial drug quinine. Some alkaloids have a bitter taste.
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