INTRODUCTION TO BOTANY

PHARMACEUTICAL BOTANY WITH TAXONOMY LECTURE

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Learning objectives:
✓ Briefly describe the fi eld of botany and give short definitions of at least five
subdisciplines of plant biology.
✓ Summarize and discuss the features of plants and other organisms that distinguish
them from nonliving things.
✓ Distinguish among the six kingdoms and three domains and give representative
organisms for each.
✓ Summarize the main steps in the scientific method and explain how science differs
from many other human endeavors.

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✓ It appears to have had its origins with Stone Age peoples who tried to modify their surroundings and feed
themselves.
✓ At first, the interest in plants was mostly practical and centered around how plants might provide food,
fibers, fuel, and medicine.
✓ This inquisitiveness led to plant study becoming a science, which broadly defined is simply “a search for
knowledge of the natural world.”
✓ Ancient Period, the Greeks like Aristotle compared plant and animal nutrition. His pupil Theophrastus (died in
287 B.C.). wrote an Enquiry into Plants .
✓ Medieval and Resonance periods or the Middle Ages, most botanical studies were done in monasteries and
in gardens which were kept by wealthy men and later by universities. The Herbals, or the chief botanical
books contained drawings or wood-cut illustrations of the plant described.
✓ In Modern day period, the Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778), established some of the
principles of plant classification and named many species of plants

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 ▪ The science of plant biology is
primarily the study of flowering plants
or angiosperms.

PLANTS ▪ Flowering plants are by far the most

important group of plants in the world
(over 250 000)
▪ they are the basis for nearly all our
food
▪ Organs of plants can be divided into
VEGETATIVE and REPRODUCTIVE.

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▪ A tissue can be simple or complex depending upon whether it is composed of
one or more than one type of cell.
▪ Plant organs include the leaf, stem, root and reproductive structures.
▪ In conifers, the organ that bears the reproductive structures is called a cone.
In other divisions (phylums) of plants, the reproductive organs are called
strobili.

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 The vegetative organs are essential for maintaining the life of a plant. While there can
be eleven (11) organs systems in animals, there are far fewer in plants, where some
perform the vital functions, such as photosynthesis. The vegetative organs are those
that create the new generation of plants.

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WHY DO WE NEED TO STUDY PLANTS?

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▪ Plant produce oxygen
▪ Plants converts carbon dioxide gas into sugars through the process of
photosynthesis
▪ Everything that we eat
▪ Plants produced chemicals used for medicine
▪ Plants helps conserve endangered plants
▪ Plants produced biofuels, fabrics, sugars, starches and etc.

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 ▪ The science of plant biology is primarily
the study of flowering plants or
angiosperms.
▪ Flowering plants are by far the most
important group of plants in the world

PLANTS ▪
(over 250 000)
they are the basis for nearly all our food
▪ Organs of plants can be divided into
VEGETATIVE and REPRODUCTIVE.
▪ Vegetative plant organs are roots, stems,
and leaves.
▪ The reproductive organs are flower, seed,
and fruit.
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 ▪ Three Greek words:
▪ botanikos (botanical), botane (plant or
herb), and boskein (to feed)
▪ French word:

BOTANY
▪ botanique (botanical)
▪ Botany is the branch of biology which deals
with the Physiology, Reproduction,
Evolution, Structure, Diseases, Economic
uses and other features of Plants
▪ Botanists are scientists who study plants.

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▪ An ASSET in Liberal Education – plants have been part of all major human activities and are
involved in studies of POLITICS, ANTHROPOLOGY, AESTHETICS, LITERATURE, ECONOMICS and
RELIGION.
▪ An APPRECIATION of the place of human beings in Nature- an awareness of man’s dependence
upon plants for food, textiles, rubber, dyes, lumber, medicines, oxygen, and many other products.
Plants are by far the most numerous living things on earth, and man is only in a minor position.
▪ An important TOOL in many Professions – in many practical fields, such as forestry,
pharmaceutics, agronomy, horticulture, plant breeding, soil conservation, and bacteriology.
Knowledge of the fundamental features of plant behaviour is essential or exceedingly helpful.

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 ● is the scientific study of plants
and plant-like organism

BOTANY ● helps us understand why

plants are so vitally important
to the world.

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 ▪ Plant Molecular Biology
▪ Plant Biochemistry
▪ Plant Taxonomy
▪ Plant Anatomy

disciplines OF BOTANY
▪ Plant Morphology
▪ Plant Physiology
▪ Plant Genetics
▪ Plant Cytology
▪ Plant Ecology
▪ Plant Pathology
▪ Paleobotany
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DIVERSITIFICATION OF PLANT STUDY
✓ Plant Molecular Biology: study the structures and functions of important biological
molecules (i.e. proteins and nucleic acids)
✓ Plant Biochemistry: study of the chemical interactions within plants, including variety of
chemicals produced.
✓ Paleobotany: study of the biology and the evolution of plants in the geologic past.

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DIVERSITIFICATION OF PLANT STUDY
✓ Plant Anatomy: concerned chiefly with the internal structures of plants
o Marcello Malpighi (1628–1694) of Italy, discovered various tissues in stems and roots
o Nehemiah Grew (1628–1711) of England, described the structure of wood more
precisely than any of his predecessors
✓ Plant Physiology: concerned with plant function
o J. B. van Helmont (1577–1644) a Flemish physician and chemist, who was the first to
demonstrate that plants do not have the same nutritional needs as animals
✓ Plant Taxonomy: involves describing, naming, and classifying organisms.
o Linnaeus, thousands of plant names in use today are those originally recorded in
Linnaeus’s book Species Plantarum, published in 1753

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DIVERSITIFICATION OF PLANT STUDY
✓ Plant Systematics: science of developing methods for grouping organisms
✓ Plant Geography: study of how and why plants are distributed where they are
✓ Plant Ecology: study of the interaction of plants with one another and with their
environment
✓ Plant Morphology: study of the form and structure of plants
✓ Genetics: science of heredity and variation
o founded by Gregor Mendel (1822–1884), an Austrian monk
o performed classic experiments with pea plants
✓ Cell biology: science of cell structure and function and life processes of plant cells
✓ Economic botany and ethnobotany: involve practical uses of plants and plant products

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Characteristics of plants
● Do not appear to “live”in a sense that animals live
● Do not run or swim or slither or fly
● Do not eat other plants or animal prey
● Plants have adapted to life on land
● Share an important characteristics with organisms

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 ✓ Theophrastus (370 – 285 B.C)
o Father of Botany
o Greek student of Aristotle
o Historia Plantarium, he categorized 480 plants on the
IMPORTANT NAMES IN THE
basis of their structure and medicinal value. Today
almost 500,000 species of plants are known and the
HISTORY OF BOTANY ✓
number is increasing.
Linnaeus
o Swedish scientist
o Called “Little Botanist”
o Publish Species Plantarium (1973)
o Inventor of the Binomial System of plant classification

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 ✓ Charles Darwin
o English scientist
o Published Origin of the Species in 1859

IMPORTANT NAMES IN THE o Founded the Theory of Evolution

HISTORY OF BOTANY
✓ Gregor Mendel
o Austrian monk
o Cross-pollinated peas in his garden
o Is considered the “Father of genetics”

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 TAXONOMY

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Taxonomy/ Systematics/ Classification:
✓ Is the science of naming and grouping organisms.
✓ they are all about the overwhelming diversity of living organisms, for there
are more than 2,000,000 species.
✓ Phylogenetics is a more fashionable term; it emphasizes the evolutionary
history (phylogeny) of taxonomic groups (taxa)

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DEVELOPMENT OF THE BINOMIAL
SYSTEM OF NOMENCLATURE

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 ▪ began improving the way organisms were named and
classified.
▪ In his book Species Plantarum, he not only included a
referenced list of all the Latin phrase names
previously given to the plants, but, when necessary,
he also changed some of the phrases to reflect
relationships, placing one to many specific kinds of
organisms called species in each genus.

Carolus Linnaeus
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 ▪ He limited each Latin phrase to a maximum of 12
words, and in the margin next to the phrase, he
listed a single word, which, when combined with
the generic name, formed a convenient
abbreviated designation for the species.
▪ The word in the margin for spearmint was spicata,
and the word for peppermint was piperita.
▪ Spearmint: Mentha spicata
Carolus Linnaeus ▪ Peppermint: Mentha piperita

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 ▪ abbreviated names became known as
binomials, and the method of naming became
known as the Binomial System of
Nomenclature

Carolus Linnaeus
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HIERARCHY OF CLASSIFICATION/
TAXONOMIC HIERARCHY

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SCIENTIFIC PROCEDURES
1. Recognize a problem or an unanswered question.
2. Develop a hypothesis, an educated guess that is testable, to
explain the problem.
3. Design and perform an experiment to test the hypothesis.
4. Analyze and interpret the data to reach a conclusion.
5. Share new knowledge with the scientific c community.

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These divisions are based
▪ Vascularization
▪ Seed Production
on the following factors: ▪ Flowering

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 THANK YOU!
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