KEY CONCEPT Humans rely on plants in many ways.

Agriculture provides stable food supplies for people in permanent settlements. Botany is the study of plants. Ethnobotany explores how people in different cultures use plants.

People started planting for harvest about 10,000 years ago. wild species “tamed” through artificial selection farming requires people to stay in one place farming helped more socially complex centers develop Teosinte is the ancestor of modern corn. Teosinte

Plant products are important economic resources. Plant products have been traded for thousands of years. spices commonly used as currency in Middle Ages

Plant products contribute to economy on a global scale today. grains, coffee, sugar, cotton, forest products billions of dollars of plant products traded each year

Question What plants were used to make the clothes that you are wearing and the contents of your backpack? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZju3dBsHCk

Plant compounds are essential to modern medicine. Pharmacology is the study of drugs and their effects on the body. Many drugs are derived from plants. Salicin from willow trees is used in aspirin. Alkaloids are potent plant chemicals that contain nitrogen. Alkaloids such as taxol have anti-cancer properties.

We still are using plants medicinally! We still use some plants medicinally in the same way they have been used for thousands of years. Example-The Aloe Vera gel you can buy to soothe sunburn was used for the same purpose by the Egyptians 3,500 years ago.

Some medical research focuses on properties of plant compounds. studies plants used medicinally in traditional cultures develop synthetic drugs based on plant compounds

But WHY though??? Why might it be important for chemists to develop synthetic drugs based on plant compounds?