Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution => Topic started by: neilep on 13/05/2008 22:34:40

Title: Caffeine and plants: What Does Caffeine Do To A Plant?
Post by: neilep on 13/05/2008 22:34:40

Dear Double Mocha Cafe Latte Choccy Dust experts,

See This Girl holding a plant !


sophieDSC03832.JPG (36.31 kB . 240x320 - viewed 7297 times)

If i was to make that plant a cup of coffee,


small_cup_of_coffee.preview.jpg (6.46 kB . 214x181 - viewed 7183 times)

It'll apparently do it good !!

What good does caffeine do to a plant ?...and how ?

I like filter !

ewe ?


Hugs and shmishes




neil
Plant Coffee Coordinator

mwah mwah mwah mwah
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Title: Re: Caffeine and plants: What Does Caffeine Do To A Plant?
Post by: Karen W. on 13/05/2008 22:54:38

Yes I like filtered also.

and this is really all I could find and it was an answer to a young fellows same question..there are many hypothesis but really no definitive one I could find as coffee has many other things that could effect the growth also..

heres the link:
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/dec96/844959492.Ag.r.html


Area: Agricultural Sciences
Posted By: Nick Bourbaki, Collective Enigma Elucidator
Date: Sat Nov 9 16:45:52 1996
Message ID: 844959492.Ag

Dear Mark,

I couldn't locate any information that specifically relates to the effects of caffeine on germinating beans or any sort of legume.

There was a paper published some time ago (reference below) which suggests caffeine inhibits the process of cytokinesis in plant cells - the last part of mitosis where the two daughter cells split their cytoplasm and organells before a cell wall forms to fully separate them. Given this bit of information it is possible caffeine would have an inhibitory effect on the germination of plant seeds.

You may also want to look for information concerning methylxanthines - a family of chemicals of which caffeine is a member. Many plant-dervied methylxanthines function as antimicrobial factors and naturally-occuring insecticides. Of course, in humans the effect is a little different..

-N.B.

Reference:
Lopez-Saez JF.  Mingo R.  Gonzalez-Fernandez A.                           
ATP level and caffeine efficiency on cytokinesis inhibition in plants.     
European Journal of Cell Biology.  27(2):185-90, 1982.

Nathanson JA.                                                             
Caffeine and related methylxanthines: possible naturally occurring         
pesticides.                                                               
Science.  226(4671):184-7, 1984 Oct 12.

Title: Re: Caffeine and plants: What Does Caffeine Do To A Plant?
Post by: neilep on 14/05/2008 00:03:28

Thanks Karen.....thank you for the link too.

So, I won;t be making my plants de-caf then !

Title: Re: Caffeine and plants: What Does Caffeine Do To A Plant?
Post by: Karen W. on 14/05/2008 04:31:31

You know I found a lot of articles and tests but the major concern was being able to just use a product that was strictly caffeine so they could really be sure it was the caffeine and not other ingredients other then the caffeine.. I should try it with decaf and caffeine free and two plants of equal health and see what happens..