Abstract
METABOLIC processes and products in living A organisms are frequently specific, and it is interesting to consider what relation a classification of organisms according to their characteristic chemical products would bear to that based upon morphology. In a number of cases it has already been realised that chemical peculiarities in plants or animals are specific for a number of biologically related organisms and for no other species. The generalisations of Baker and Smith on the types of essential oils produced in different groups of eucalypts are a case in point. Similarly, it has been realised for some time that in the seed-fats of some plant families specific fatty acids are elaborated in quantity (for example, lauric in the Palmae, myristic in Myristicaceae, erucic in Brassica, etc.); while the recent observations of Heilbron and co-workers on the pigments and sterols of certain algae disclose similar specific relationships.
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Hilditch, T., Lovern, J. The Evolution of Natural Fats: A General Survey. Nature 137, 478–481 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137478a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137478a0
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