Using plant starch and fibres

Uses of plants
Name few uses of plants
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 Some plants are grown as staple foods meaning that.....................................................................................

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Most of the staple foods contain cells filled with amyloplasts. These organelles, contain starch. These
can also be used to reproduce the species. This stores starch which can be hydrolysed to produce energy.

 Plant cell wall contains cellulose fibres that give them with great strength. These fibres get further
toughened and strengthened by ........................ which will turn them into wood.

How fibres are processed?

Many fibres are used to produce ropes. Many traditional methods simply practice natural methods to extract
fibres. They mainly use ………………………………………………………………………………………..

………………………………………………………... This process is known as …………………….. In the

industrial activities, people use ……………………………………………………………… to extract fibres.

The most commonly used natural fibre is ……………….. They contain seeds in which we find the pure
cotton fibre, thus retting is not required.

Normally cotton has short fibres but in order to manufacture products, long fibres are of great importance.
Therefore short fibres are twisted together to form long fibres.

Plant fibres are useful to us:

 because fibres = bundles of sclerenchyma and xylem which can be extracted intact from plants
 plants from which fibres can be obtained are relatively easy to grow in quantity
 the fibres themselves are useful because they are long and thin, strong, flexible
 relatively easily and cheaply extracted, durable, resistant to decay (cellulose is difficult for
decomposers to break down)

Uses for plant fibres include:

Clothing e.g. linen (from flax plants); Rope e.g. hemp and sisal; Sacking e.g. jute; Matting e.g. coir
or coconut matting; Paper
Sustainability; Advantages of growing for fibres (e.g. nettles)
 a sustainable resource i.e. grow aqain after they are cut so no need to plant more
 or harvest seeds and plant those so remnants of one crop sustains the next one i.e. it is self-sustaining
 can be grown in poorer soils so won’t use up valuable agricultural land
 make profitable use of marginal land
 use of fibres (and other plant products made from starch) replace need for oil-based plastics so
reduce reliance of fossil fuels, and reduce CO2 emissions to reduce global warming
 natural products so biodegradable by decomposers

 Then people started to manufacture synthetic fibres such as nylon, polyester.

Advantages of synthetic fibres;

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Bio plastics

Plastics are widely used in the world for different purposes. These are synthetic materials made out of oil
based chemicals. There are different varieties of plastics such as soft flexible solids, hard brittle materials.
The environmental problems caused by plastics are increasing day by day;

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Scientists have discovered bioplastics which is based on biological polymers such as ……………………….

………………………. These biological polymers are sustainable resources and are biodegradable.
Bioplastics are widely used in packaging industry.

Different types of bio plastics

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 Made from wood pulp

 mainly used to make plastic wrapping for food.
 Cellophane is a common example
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 Most widely used bioplastic

 Made from starch which is extracted from potatoes and maize
 used to make capsules to contain drugs
 thermoplastic starch is smooth, shiny, and easy to swallow, it absorbs water and is readily digested.

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 Has similar properties to polythene but is biodegradable

 produced from maize or sugar cane
 Uses include computer casings, mobile phones and drinking cups
 Poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) is a stiff biopolymer, used in ropes, car parts, Made of sugar cane.

Problems with bio plastics

 Plastics made from petrochemicals have extremely useful properties and it is not always easy to achieve
these same properties in bioplastics.
 Bioplastics are still more expensive than oil based plastics.
 There are more conventional plastic is made each year worldwide than bio plastics.
 There are problems in using crops such a maize, wheat, sugar cane and sugar beet for food and for bio
plastics. Currently there aren’t enough crops to feed everyone. Who decides whether these limited crops
are used for food to satisfy the immediate hunger of people around the world or bioplastics?

Development of the use of Digitalis by William Withering in 1775

Digitalis is a natural toxin found in foxgloves (an insect antifeedant) which can be fatal in even quite small
doses. But it had been used for centuries in herbal remedies to treat some heart conditions. William
Withering rigorously tested digitalis and brought it into conventional medicine in 1785 as a treatment for
dropsy (or congestive heart failure) which is the accumulation of fluid and swelling resulting from a weak
heart:
o He gave 163 Dropsy sufferers an extract of foxgloves
o He increased the dosage until the patient showed signs of side-effects (nausea, vomiting,
diarrhoea and yellow/green vision - some of his patients nearly died!)
o He then reduced the dosage slightly => the most effective dose
o Successful treatment was that the patient survived and there was an increase in the
effectiveness of the heart beat (digitoxin is a stimulant) and an increase in urine production to
remove the excess fluid
What was ethically wrong with this?
o An overdose of Foxglove is fatal
o He gave more and more to his patients until they either showed signs of recovery or nearly
died
Modern drug testing
Stage Purpose of stage

Pre-clinical Proposed drug is tested in a lab with cultured cells to see the general
testing effects of the drug
Proposed drug is given to animals to see the effects on a whole animal.
Any side effects away from target cells are noted.

Clinical Trials A small group of healthy volunteers are given different doses of the drug.
– Phase 1 They are told what the drug does
The distribution, absorbance rate, metabolism & excretion profile of the
drug are assessed.
The effects of the different doses are assessed to try and determine the
optimum dose. An independent organisation (UK Medicines Control
Agency) assesses whether it is appropriate to move to Phase 2

Clinical Trials A small group of people with the disease are given the drug.
– Phase 2
Studies are very similar to Phase 1
The optimum dose is worked out

Clinical Trials A large group of people with the disease are given optimum doses of
– Phase 3 the drug [Reduces effects of chance/random variation]
The patients are either given the drug or a placebo in a double-blind
test
[Neither patients nor doctors know who gets drug or placebo (avoids
bias in ‘looking for results’)
avoids patient/researcher bias in observing, recording and
interpreting effects
prevents subconscious prediction or influence of the outcome by both
patient and researcher e.g. if know placebo used neither would expect
any effect or if know drug used may feel/look for improvements that
are not really there (psychosomatic influences).]
The results are statistically analysed
[Improves accuracy of conclusions as to whether or not drug actually
does have an effect or not.]
If the drug has had a significant positive and safe effect in the treatment of
the disease it is put forward to licensing authority
In what way is the current system of drug testing safer and more reliable than Withering’s?
Safer:
 Use of specific active ingredient should allow a more precise dose to be given
 Any serious ill effects may be detected in the animal trials first
More reliable:
 Uses larger samples reduces effects of chance/random variation
 Double blind testing avoids patient/researcher bias in observing, recording and interpreting effects
 Statistical analysis of data improves accuracy of conclusions as to whether or not drug actually does
have an effect or not.