Several insect lineages have developed diverse strategies to sequester toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids from food-plants for their own defense. Here, we show that in two highly divergent insect taxa, the hemimetabolous grasshoppers and the holometabolous butterflies, an almost identical strategy evolved independently for safe accumulation of pyrrolizidine alkaloids. This strategy involves a pyrrol...

An alkaloid is a type of plant-derived organic compound. Alkaloids are generally composed of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen. Some alkaloids are considered toxic, but others are often used medicinally. Alkaloids one might encount er in everyday life include caffeine, the drugs atropine and quinine, and the deadly nightshade plant. Alkaloids are relatively rare in plants. They have what's...

Background: Plants infection with microorganisms as well as physical factors such as osmotic stresses especially drought stress induced particular secondary metabolite production. Objective: Plant root and shoot hyoscyamine (HYO) and scopolamine (SCO) variations were investigated under three water deficit stress (WDS) levels as 30 (W1), 60 (W2) and 90 % (W3) water depletion of field capacity a...

Plants are eminent source of new therapeutic agents that helps to alleviate human ailments and promote health. The noteworthy preventive and protective properties of these substances are related to their strong antioxidative, antimutagenic and anticarcinogenic potential. Among these, alkaloids are important secondary metabolites that are known to possess curative properties and are of prime imp...

Soybeans are subject to potential contamination from toxic weed seeds during harvest, transportation and storage. The more common foreign seeds include those from jimsonweed, cocklebur, nightshade, cowcockle, corncockle, morning glory, castor, pokeweed, and crotalaria. This review addresses itself to the chemistry and toxic principles of these contaminants. Since jimsonweed seeds are probably t...