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KEY CONCEPT Humans rely on plants in many ways.

Explore the vital role of plants in human society, from botany and ethnobotany to agriculture, trade, and pharmacology. Discover how plants provide food, economic resources, and medicinal compounds that shape our world today.

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KEY CONCEPT Humans rely on plants in many ways.

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  1. KEY CONCEPT Humans rely on plants in many ways.

  2. Botany is the study of plants. Ethnobotany explores how people in different cultures use plants. Agriculture provides stable food supplies for people in permanent settlements.

  3. People started planting for harvest about 10,000 years ago. Teosinte • wild species “tamed” through artificial selection • farming requires people to stay in one place • farming helped more socially complex centers develop

  4. Plant products have been traded for thousands of years. spices commonly used as currency in Middle Ages Plant products are important economic resources. • spurred seafaring expeditions in 1400s and 1500s

  5. Plant products contribute to economy on a global scale today. • grains, coffee, sugar, cotton, forest products • billions of dollars of plant products traded each year

  6. Pharmacology is the study of drugs and their effects on the body. Many drugs are derived from plants. Salicin from willow trees is used in aspirin. Alkaloids are potent plant chemicals that contain nitrogen. Alkaloids such as taxol have anti-cancer properties. Plant compounds are essential to modern medicine.

  7. Some medical research focuses on properties of plant compounds. • studies plants used medicinally in traditional cultures • develop synthetic drugs based on plant compounds

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