16 Phytoalexins, Plants, and Human Health J. KUĆ Downloaded by NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIV on November 11, 2012 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: June 1, 1976 | doi: 10.1021/ba-1976-0149.ch016
Department of Plant Pathology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky. 40506 W. CURRIER Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind. 47907 Plants accumulate many different compounds as a result of infection or stress. Some (the phytoalexins) are toxic to microorganisms and rapidly accumulate in resistant plants following infection. Others accumulate in susceptible host -parasite interactions and may be precursors or degradation products of phytoalexins or unrelated to them. Phytoalexin accumulation can be caused by: living organisms, products of living organisms, chemical toxicants, ethylene, pesticides, and temperature stress. Plant breeders developing new resistant varieties may select for plants which accumulate phytoalexins. The presence of phytoalexins and related compounds in foods obtained from new varieties, stressed plants, plants treated with pesticides and infected plants is a potential hazard to human health. People naturally are most aware of human diseases. However the world's population depends as much on the control of the diseases of plants and animals that comprise our living environment as it does on the control of human disease. Starvation is the world's number one killer, and its control requires a healthy agriculture and living environment. Early man recognized that if he survived some diseases, he subsequently be came immune to them. Eventually the concept of immunization was accepted and, together with antibiotics, has been responsible for the con trol of many of man's most deadly diseases in some parts of the world. Starvation has not been controlled, and any hope of control depends on the control of plant diseases. Yet little support has been given to eluci date the nature of disease resistance in plants relative to the support for work with human disease. The basic mechanism for resistance in man is twofold. First, there are physical and chemical barriers to keep infectious agents out of the 356
In Mycotoxins and Other Fungal Related Food Problems; Rodricks, J.; Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1976.
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