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Secondary metabolites often play an important role in plant defense against herbivory and other interspecies defenses. Humans use secondary metabolites as medicines, flavourings, pigments, and recreational drugs. [2] The term secondary metabolite was first coined by Albrecht Kossel, the 1910 Nobel Prize laureate for medicine and physiology.
The opposite of secondary metabolites are primary metabolites, which are considered to be essential to the normal growth or development of an organism. Secondary metabolites are produced by many microbes, plants, fungi and animals, usually living in crowded habitats, where chemical defense represents a better option than physical escape. [2]
A secondary metabolite is not directly involved in those processes, but usually has important ecological function. Examples include antibiotics and pigments. [40] By contrast, in human-based metabolomics, it is more common to describe metabolites as being either endogenous (produced by the host organism) or exogenous.
A secondary metabolite is not directly involved in those processes, but usually has important ecological function. Secondary metabolites may include pigments, antibiotics or waste products derived from partially metabolized xenobiotics. The study of the metabolome is called metabolomics.
Some drugs undergo metabolism in both species via different enzymes, resulting in different metabolites, while other drugs are metabolized in one species but excreted unchanged in another species. For this reason, one species's reaction to a substance is not a reliable indication of the substance's effects in humans.
Many secondary metabolites are cytotoxic and have been selected and optimized through evolution for use as "chemical warfare" agents against prey, predators, and competing organisms. [11] Secondary or specialized metabolites are often unique to specific species, whereas primary metabolites are commonly found across multiple kingdoms. Secondary ...
3. Keebler Fudge Magic Middles. Neither the chocolate fudge cream inside a shortbread cookie nor versions with peanut butter or chocolate chip crusts survived.
They are most widely known for producing secondary metabolites, the source or basis of most pharmaceutical compounds, natural toxins, chemical communication, and chemical warfare between organisms. Metabolic gene clusters are also involved in nutrient acquisition, toxin degradation, [ 7 ] antimicrobial resistance, and vitamin biosynthesis. [ 5 ]