PLANT METABOLITE

Photosynthesis
The Most Important Equation in Biology
 Primary Metabolites

• Primary metabolites are

compounds that are commonly
produced by all plants and that are
directly used in plant growth and
development.
• The main primary metabolites
are carbohydrates, proteins,
nucleic acids, and lipids.
 Carbohydrates
• Carbohydrates are the sugars made up
of glucose and its isomers

Carbohydrates come in many different

sizes:

• Monosaccharides made up of one

sugar unit (glucose or fructose)
• Disaccharides made up of two sugar units
(sucrose is made of a glucose and a
fructose).

• Polysaccharides are polymers made up of

more than two sugar units
 Harvesting Sucrose

Sugar Cane Maple Syrup

Traditional extraction of sugar sap from
sugar cane – Assam, India
Tapa dulce – Costa Rica
Maltose and Sucrose
 Polysaccharides

• Structural polysaccharides are used

to support plants

• Storage polysaccharides are used

to store energy for later use by the
plant
 Structural Polysaccharides
• The most common structural polysaccharide
in plants is cellulose.

• It makes up 40 to 60% of the cell wall.

• It is also the most common polymer on

earth
• Cellulose is extremely strong due to its
chemical organization.

• It is made of a long chain of beta-glucose

molecules – 100 to 15,000 glucose
molecules
Cotton Boll – Pure Cellulose
 Gluey Polysaccharides
• Pectins are mainly polymers of galacturonic acid.

• Hemicelluloses are highly variable and are not

related to cellulose.

• Grass hemicelluloses are high in xylose, with

small amounts of arabinose, galactose, and urionic
acids. But pea family (Fabaceae) hemicelluloses
are high in arabinose, galactose and urionic acid,
but low in xylose.
• Some of the most interesting hemicelluloses
are not actually used structurally, but rather
are exuded from stems, leaves, roots, or
fruits in a sticky mixture called a gum.
Pectin and Hemicellulose
Gum Arabic from Acacia senegal
 Storage Polysaccharides
• The most important storage polysaccharides are
amylose and amylopectin.

• Amylose is a long chain of alpha-glucose, several

hundred to several thousand molecules long.

• Amylopectin is more complex, often made up of

50,000 molecules.
• These two polymers are both used in
making starch grains.

• Most starch grains are about 20% amylose

and 80% amylopectin, but this varies with
the plant species.
Inulin – another storage carbohydrate –
long chain of fructose
Jerusalem artichoke
 Digestability
• The properties of alpha-glucose and beta-glucose
affect their digestability.

• Alpha-glucose polymers don’t form fibrils and

thus are not as strong as cellulose from beta-
glucose.

• Even more important, almost all organisms have

alpha-amylase, a digestive enzyme that breaks
down alpha-glucose bonds.
• Starches can be digested easily. Plants have
alpha-amylase so they can harvest energy
from starches in their seeds, roots, and
tubers.

• Very few organisms have cellulases – just

some fungi and bacteria, earthworms, and a
few insects can digest cellulase.
PROTEIN
 Proteins
• Proteins make up most of the
remaining biomass of living plant cells.

• A protein consists of one or more

polypeptides made up of amino acids.
• Plants make amino acids from the products
of photosynthesis through a very complex
process involving the acquisition of N.

• Acquisition of N in the form of NH4, and

involving the use of large amounts of
energy, in the form of ATP and NADPH.
 Structural Proteins
• Structural proteins make up 2 to 10% of the cell
wall in plants. Expansins help increase the surface
area of cell walls. Extensins help protect or repair
damaged cell walls. The plant cell membrane is
about 50% structural proteins.
 Storage Proteins
• Storage proteins are used mostly in seeds
and are used as source of nutrition for the
early development of seedlings.
• Storage proteins used in seeds vary
considerably between plant species.

• Corn produces a storage protein called

ZEIN. Wheat produces a storage protein
called GLIADIN
Corn Zein
Wheat Gliadin
 Enzymes
• Enzymes catalyze biochemical reactions.
Most proteins in living cells are enzymes.

• Pure enzymes that maintain their activity

when removed from plants are
commercially important to us.
Papaya – Papain and Chymopapain
Pineapple - Bromelain
Nucleic Acids

• The most complex

biological polymers are
the nucleic acids that
make up RNA and
DNA.

• The basic content of

bases (adenine, thymine,
gaunine and cytosine)
are similar in all plants
 Lipids

• Unlike other biological polymers, lipids are

not defined by specific, repeating
monomeric units.

• Rather they are defined by their water-

repelling properties.
• The only structure they share is that they
mostly are made up of nonpolar
hydrocarbon groups (CH3, CH2, and CH).

• Oils are fats that are liquid at room

temperature.
 Oils
• Oils occur in all parts of a plant, but are most
common in seeds.

• Some seeds have so much oil that it can be

commercially harvested.

• The most commonly used oils are cotton, sesame,

safflower, sunflower, olive, coconut, peanut, corn,
castor bean, canola, and soybean oils.
• The most common seed oil fatty acids are
oleic acid (one double bond), linoleic acid
(two double bonds), and linolenic acid
(three double bonds).

• Linoleic and linolenic are essential fatty

acids – we can’t make them ourselves.
Olive Oil
Canola Oil
Palm oil
 Waxes
• Waxes are complex mixtures of fatty acids linked
to long-chain alcohols.

• Waxes that comprise the outermost layer of

leaves, fruits, and herbaceous stems and are called
EPICUTICULAR waxes.

• Waxes embedded in the cuticle of the plant are

cuticular waxes.
• Cutin is another wax in the cuticle and it
makes up most of the cuticle.

• Suberin is a similar wax that is found in

cork cells in bark and in plant roots.

• Both help prevent water loss by the plant.

• Structures of waxes vary depending on
which plant produced them.

• Waxes are usually harder and more water

repellant than other fats.
Bayberry Wax
Euphorbia antisyphilitica
Candelilla wax
Jojoba Wax
 Plant Secondary Metabolites
• Plants make a variety of less widely
distributed compounds such as
morphine, caffeine, nicotine, menthol,
and rubber.

• These compounds are the products of

secondary metabolism, which is the
metabolism of chemicals that occurs
irregularly or rarely among plants, and
that have no known general metabolic
role in plants.
• Secondary metabolites or secondary
compounds, are not required for normal
growth and development, and are not made
through metabolic pathways common to all
plants.

• Most plants have not been examined for

secondary compounds and new compounds
are discovered almost daily.
TERIMAKASIH