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The Strange Fate of Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids

  • Conference paper
Perspectives in Chemoreception and Behavior

Part of the book series: Proceedings in Life Sciences ((LIFE SCIENCES))

Abstract

Plants, as well as other organisms, are composed of chemical substances. In 1891, the pioneer of cytochemistry, A. Kossel, subdivided plant components into primary and secondary ones. Mothes (1980, 1984) quotes from an 1896 lecture of Kossel, who addressed the Berlin Physiological Society (in liberal translation from the German):

The search and description of those atomic complexes, which are the essence of life are the foundation for the investigation of the life processes. I propose to call the essential components of the cell PRIMARY and those that are not found in all the cells that have the capacity to develop, SECONDARY. The decision whether a substance is a primary or a secondary one is in some cases difficult.

A fairy tale: Once upon a time there was a nice little pyrrolizidine alkaloid molecule. It finds its protective task in the plant rewarding but somewhat dull in spite of the dramatic effects it has upon the big herbivores and the human pharmacophages. Somehow its use after the transfer into the insect is more of an adventure, and particularly fascinating is its role in the social and love life of the Lepidoptera. But the promotion of the growth of a gigantic organ that serves to bring all the moths together really is the crowning role in the life of any molecule. And, after all this is done, the little molecule happily agrees to its disintegration to await a later reassembly and reincarnation, perhaps as a human pheromone molecule?.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institut für Verhaltensphysiologie, D-8131, Seewiesen, Germany

    Dietrich Schneider

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  1. Dietrich Schneider
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Biological Control and Department of Entomological Sciences, University of California, 94706, Berkeley, California, USA

    R. F. Chapman

  2. Division of Biological Control and Department of Entomological Sciences, University of California, 94706, Berkeley, California, USA

    E. A. Bernays

  3. Department of Entomology, University of Massachusetts, 01003, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA

    J. G. Stoffolano Jr.

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Schneider, D. (1987). The Strange Fate of Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids. In: Chapman, R.F., Bernays, E.A., Stoffolano, J.G. (eds) Perspectives in Chemoreception and Behavior. Proceedings in Life Sciences. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4644-2_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4644-2_8

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