• Food

- All living organisms need food

- They need it as a source of raw materials, to build new cells and tissues as they grow
- They also need food as a source of energy
- Food is a kind of fuel that drives vital (important) living processes
→ And enables chemical changes

• Difference between plants and animals

- Animals take In food, digest it and use the digested products to build their tissues or to release
energy.
- Plants also need energy
→ But (apart from a few insect-eating species) plants do not take in food
→ Instead they make their own source of food from air water and soil minerals salts.
• Photosynthesis
- Plants make food by photosynthesis
- It happens in the leaves of a plant

• Definition:
→ Photosynthesis is a process by which plant converts light energy into chemical energy
in the presence of chlorophyll to produce glucose and oxygen

• Meaning of the word Photosynthesis

- Photo means "light"

- Synthesis means "making"
- So Photosynthesis means "making with light"

• Why is it called "Photosynthesis"

- When complicated food molecules are built up from simpler substances, the process is called
synthesis
- The process needs enzymes and energy to make it happen
- The enzymes are present in the plant's cells
- The energy for the first stages in the synthesis comes from sunlight.
- So the process is called photosynthesis

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- So the process is called photosynthesis

Chlorophyll:
→ A green pigment found inside chloroplasts in some plant cells, which absorbs sunlight
and provides energy it gains for chemical reactions
→ Converts light energy into chemical energy to form glucose and other carbohydrates
→ Present in the leaves of a plant inside chloroplasts

Chloroplasts:
→ Small green structures present in the cytoplasm of the leaf cells
→ Makes leaves and stems look green
→ Absorbs energy from light and uses it to split the water molecules into hydrogen and
oxygen.

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