What are the major organs of a plant and what are their functions?
From what plant part or parts do fruits arise?
From what plant part or parts do seeds arise?
What are the parts or layers of the fruit wall?
What is the general scheme of plant alternation of generations?
To what generation does the embryo give rise?
Variation, Selection and Evolution in Flowering Plants:
What is natural selection?
What is evolution?
What is a mutation?
How may mutation rates be artifically increased?
What is a sport?
What is outcrossing?
What is inbreeding?
What are the effects of outcrossing and inbreeding on genetic variability?
What is hybridization?
What is heterosis?
What are the parts of a scientific name?
What is a cultivar?
Origins of Agriculture
What is Edgar Anderson's 'dump heap hypothesis?'
According to Carl Sauer, what were the conditions that first permitted humans to engage in agriculture?
What are the theories advanced to explain why humans would invest time and energies in initiating agriculture as a human endeavor?
Where are some of the locations where agriculture is believed to have originated independently?
Fruits and Nuts of Temperate Regions
What is the difference between a simple ovary and a compound ovary?
What is the difference between a superior and an inferior ovary?
What is the difference between an aggregate and a multiple fruit?
What are some strategies by which plants can encourage fruit dispersal while protecting seeds?
What is meant by a stone fruit?
What is the difference between a freestone and a cling peach?
Fruits and Nuts of Warm Regions
Compare and contrast the production and availability of temperate and tropical fruits and nuts.
What is a hesperidium?
Why are naval oranges seedless and how are they propagated?
What is unique about the seed structure of the coconut palm?
What does parthenocarpy mean and how does it apply to pineapples?
How is the herbaceous banana plant propagated?
What is the fruit of the fig and how is it pollinated and dispersed in nature?
Why does the avacado present a unique challenge in understanding its life history?
What is an economically important enzyme obtained from papaya?
What is responsible for the tart flavor of the carambola or star fruit?
What is the difference between a cocnut apple, a cashew apple and a Malus apple?
Cereal Grains and Forage Grasses
What is the importance of the Poaceae in terms of cropland production and caloric provision?
Approximately what percentage of the Poaceae species have been brought into cultivation?
What are the three most important members of this family in terms of supporting the human population?
What is the fruit of the Poaceae?
What is the function of the aleurone layer?
How does polishing or pearling of grain affect the nutritional qualities of the grain?
What is gluten and how does this relate to differences between macaroni wheat and bread wheat?
Why does white flour have a longer shelf life than brown flour?
What is done to enrich wheat flour?
What provides a natural source of nitrogen to rice plants grown in paddies?
How may millets be used to extend agricultural zones?
Why is corn so efficient photosynthetically?
What is pellagra and why was this a problem in Europe, Africa and the Americas?
In what forms (one wet, one dry) may grain plants be used for non-human animal feed?
What genus of bacteria associate with legume roots, and what is the nature of the relationship?
What is meant by "fixation" of nitrogen?
What are the results or consequences of legumes' ability to fix nitrogen, both for themselves and for their environment?
What are some traits that have been selected during the breeding of legumes?
What are the effects of phytoestrogens on human physiology?
Why are soybeans not eaten raw?
Name several types or varieties of beans that belong to the species Phaseolus vulgaris.
How and where does the fruit of the peanut form?
Moldy peanuts may contain what carcinogenic compound?
What is the source of locust bean gum (locust gum)?
Which legumes are used for forage crops?
Foods from Stems, Roots and Leaves
What are the different crops obtained from Brassica oleracea and what is the plant part that is developed for each?
What vitamin is obtained from carrot and what is the vitamin's precursor?
What compounds are responsible for the color in table beets?
What is the sugar content of sugar beets?
Spinach is rich in what mineral and what vitamin?
How are onions kept from sprouting during storage?
What is the enzyme in onions that is responsible for the release of the characteristic odors and the lachrymating agent of onions?
What poisonous glycoalkaloid forms under potato skins when they turn green?
How are potatoes planted (what part of the plant is used)?
True yams belong to which genus?
How important is manioc to providing calories for the human species?
What are the attributes of cassava or manioc that make it a desirable and productive crop?
What organ is the edible portion of sweet potato?
What are the two most important crops involved in the production of sugar?
Spices, Herbs & Perfumes
What are the characteristics of molecules that make up many of the essential oils?
Where are essential oils located in plants?
What are the natural functions of essential oils in plants?
From what part of the plant is saffron obtained? Why is saffron so expensive?
What is a cinnamon curl or quill? How are they made?
From what part of the plant are cloves obtained and what developmental differences accounts for differences in the value of the spice?
From what plant part is ginger obtained?
Red, green, black and white pepper all come from Piper nigrum, so what accounts for the differences observed?
Why are paprika and tabasco hot spices?
What is the fruit from which we get vanilla?
What is the main component of imitation vanilla?
What are the five types or classes of odorants and how is each obtained?
What does the technique of enfleurage involve?
Vegetable Oils & Waxes
What is the difference between a saturated, a monounsaturated, and a polyunsaturated fatty acid?
What are good sources of monounsaturated oils from plants?
Which fatty acid is required by humans, but not made by humans?
What is the fatty acid that is a major contributor to bad flavor in oils and has been implicated in atherosclerosis?
Sodium and potassium salts of fatty acids form the primary ingredient in what commercial product?
What are some antioxidants used to reduce oxidation of fatty acids in oils?
What kinds of fatty acids typify those found in drying oils?
What are the two main products that result from the alkali treatment of fats in the first stages of soap production?
What happens to the meal or cake that is left after oil extraction of seeds and fruits?
What algal product is used in bleaching of oils?
How are extracted oils partially hydrogenated and why may that have adverse health implications?
Tung oil is not edible, so in what products is this oil used?
Why does sesame oil have a longer shelf-life than other oils?
From what oil was the original Wesson oil and Crisco manufactured?
What obstacles had to be overcome to make Canola oil more palatable for humans?
Why is canola oil a good industrial lubricant?
What effect does ricinoleic acid have on human physiology?
From what is carnuba wax obtained (plant and plant part), and what are some of its uses?
From what is bayberry wax obtained?
Hydrogels, Elastic Latexes, and Resins
What is a hydrogel?
What are the three main classes of plant-derived hydrogels?
How are gums used in the food industry?
What is gum arabic and from what plant is it obtained?
Name some of the products in which gum tragacanth may be found.
What gum can be used for dental adhesives and may also be found in bologna and hairspray?
What is the principal natural gum used in the modern paper industry?
What semisynthetic gum is used by the paper industry?
Why is carboxymethylcellulose included in some detergents?
What are the main sources of pectin?
How much nutrition do humans receive from eating pectins?
Why can we digest starch, but not cellulose, even though both are polymers of glucose?
What is meant by starch sizing in the paper industry and why is it used?
What is rubber?
From what plant is most of the natural rubber obtained?
What is vulcanization?
What is the potential for use of guayule as an alternative rubber source?
What is the latex used for the base of chewing gums?
Pine resin is processed into what three main naval stores?
What percentage of the world's population depends on herbal medicine today?
Approximately what percentage of major modern pharmaceuticals have a plant compound as the primary active ingredient?
What natural plant gum is used as a binder in tablets, and for suspending oral antibiotics?
What natural plant gum is used as an emulsifier for fat-soluble vitamins?
What group of organisms are most affected by steroids produced by plants?
What is the agent responsible for leprosy (Hansen's disease) and what is the plant oil used in Africa and Asia to treat the disease?
What is the source of quinine and for what disease is it used?
Ephedrine can lead to cardiac arrest if taken in excess because it is structurally similar to what compound that occurs in vertebrates?
Salix alba is a source of what compound, and for what is it used?
Erythroxylum coca is a source of what compound that is used as a local anesthetic?
Saponins and sapogenins are used to synthesize what human chemical group?
What compounds constitute the cardiac glycosides and what effects do they have on human physiology?
What are the three main alkaloids obtained from the opium poppy?
Which tropane alkaloid is used to prevent motion sickness?
Which tropane alkaloid is used to treat Parkinson's disease?
What product from Cinchona stops heart irregularities such as flutter and arrhythmia?
What product from Rauwolfia is used to treat schizophrenia?
What plant is the source of chemicals processed into teniposide for cancer treatment?
Papaya is the source of what enzyme used to digest spinal cartilage?
PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS & POISONS
What is the active ingredient in marijuana?
To what brain receptor does THC bind?
What is laudanum?
Morphine can be chemically modified to form what analgesic?
Cocaine is obtained from what plants?
To what transporters does cocaine bind?
How much money can a farmer make per acre by growing coca plants and how much money per acre would they make by growing substitute crops?
What do natives mix with coca leaves when chewing them to increase the release of the active alkaloids?
How much nicotine is potentially delivered per cigarette and what is the daily dosage below which withdrawal symptoms develop?
For what is purified nicotine used?
Name at least three diseases or adverse medical conditions for which tobacco use is responsible.
What common name of Datura has its origin in Virginia history?
What is the source of pyrethrums and for what are they used?
STIMULATING BEVERAGES
What are the three major stimulating beverages on the market today?
What does a diuretic do?
What species of coffee accounts for 90% of the world's market share?
The ripe fruit of the coffee tree is called a cherry but is really what kind of fruit?
How long does it take for the fruit of a coffee tree to mature?
How many seeds are in each fruit of the coffee tree and what are they commonly called when marketed?
What solvents have been used for coffee decaffeination and which one has been implicated in destruction of the ozone layer?
How often can Camellia sinensis be picked during the growing season?
What three components are most responsible for the taste and stimulating effect of teas?
"Kola nuts" are actually what part of the plant?
What two stimulants are in kola?
Theobromine, isolated from cacao, is converted into what stimulating chemical?
How many flower cycles per year do cacao plants have, and by what agent are they pollinated?
What are cacao nibs?
How is chocolate liquor obtained?
How is chocolate dutched?
What are the ingredients from which chocolate candy is made?
What cholesterol-lowering compound is in chocolate?
ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES
What phytohormone stimulates synthesis of amylase from the grain aleurone layer?
What is malt?
Bitter resins and essential oils used for flavoring beer are produced in the glands of what plant?
What is the function of a fermentation lock during brewing of beer?
During anaerobic fermentation each molecule of glucose produces how many molecules of ethanol, how many molecules of carbon dioxide, and how many molecules of ATP?
Ethanol can accumulate to what percentage during yeast fermentation?
What is mead?
Wines are produced from fermentation of what?
What water-borne diseases were prevalent in western civilizations that made many municipal water sources unsafe?
Why are most grapes for wine-production produced on plants with grafted rootstocks?
What is the source of starch for the production of sake?
What is the used to break starch down into sugars for the production of sake?
Why is white oak used to store and age distilled alcohols?
What is the flavoring agent of gin?
What condition results from the exposure of a fetus to alcohol during pregnancy?
FIBERS, DYES, AND TANNINS
What are some basic differences between plant and animal fibers?
What are some of the economic uses of plant fibers?
What are the three main sources (types) of textile fibers?
What is meant by retting, scutching, and hackling in reference to fiber extraction?
How are leaves decorticated to produce fibers?
What are non-weavable fibers such as those of milkweed and kapok used for?
What is the adaptive significance of fibers on seeds and in fruits?
Cotton linters are used in the production of what product?
How many species of cotton are extant, and how many are used for textile production?
Which species of cotton is most important economically?
Why are cotton plants defoliated or dessicated prior to harvest?
What is coir and from what plant is it obtained?
What are bast fibers?
For what kinds of products are jute, flax, hemp, and ramie fibers used?
What is linsey-woolsey?
What two genera are the source of commercially important leaf fibers?
What products are made from Manila hemp?
What is the function of a mordant in dyeing?
What plant dye is used to color butter, margarine and cheese?
What is tanning?
How are tannins obtained?