Abstract
SOME plants contain organic compounds of potent physiological action on the animal organism; but as far as is known no biological function in the plants themselves. Are they waste end-products of metabolism ? Are they the result of detoxification mechanisms ? Are they produced to discourage attack by insects and animals ? Or are they mere ‘accidents’ or by-products of faulty metabolism—or perhaps even the results of evolutionary biochemical experiments not yet discarded ?
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SPEDDING, D., WILSON, A. Caffeine Metabolism. Nature 204, 73 (1964). https://doi.org/10.1038/204073a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/204073a0
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