• Question: Why are plants so important to study?

    Asked by anon-224257 to Scott, Jack, Caragh on 14 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Caragh Whitehead

      Caragh Whitehead answered on 14 Nov 2019:


      Plants are so important to study because not only are they a source of food for us but a lot of our medicines come from plants too. For examples some poppy’s produce medicine such as codeine and morphine that is used in the treatment of pain. The Artemisia plant produced a chemical that can be used to treat malaria. There is still a lot we don’t know about the chemicals plants produce that could possible be used for treatments to for other diseases.

      In recent years we have been looking to plants to see what compounds they can produce that can be used to replace chemicals that are currently coming from fossil fuels. These chemicals are used in all sorts of things from paint, plastics and even food additives. There is so much we still don’t know about plants and how they can help us every day.

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