Caffeine and Nicotine In Plants
What have coffee and cigarettes got to do with insects?
Well, new research with insects has shown that plants produce caffeine & nicotine to kill insect pests that attack them – especially their roots.
But much smaller doses of caffeine in plant pollen helps bees to become more active and it improves their memory to relocate the flowers later on.
Equally nicotine in flower nectar forces insects to take only a little nectar to avoid poisoning. This means that many more insects can feed on each flower-improving the plant’s chances of pollination. Nicotine, by the way, is a powerful poison.
Plants have extensive armories of defence chemicals and humans have learnt to use many of them for our own purposes.
Hence students having a cup of tea or coffee while studying improve their exam results due to improved energy and memory.
Next time… Chocolate.
Hooroo!
