Do you see or not-FLAVONOIDS

Flavonoids

On a spacious meadow full of plants, I noticed a beautiful blossom of white. I admired her beauty and murmured how beautiful this color is.When she heard that bee, which worked worth and she uttered loudly "White, you must be Daltonist". I looked, and I said, "What are you talking about there, do not you see this is a white flower." "Man, I do not have time to teach you, I have to work. And my private biology classes were expensive, "she said and continued to work. I immediately called my buddy who study Biology. And I asked him to explain everything nicely to me. He accepted my offer and started telling me. 

Like human, bees are trichromatic, but their cones are different. They have cones for blue, green, and ultraviolet.They experience more colors than humans, their visual spectrum ranges from 320 to 540 nanometers. The plant absorbs the UV part of the spectrum, and so color its parts of the flowers that the bees say it needs to visit that plant. The plant drew a road sign on its body to make it easier for a bee to do. And those parts of the flower are bright fluorescent colors.  

''I wish I could see that too''

''Do not despair my friend, you can also see a flower as the bee sees it. You just need to have a UV lamp''.

''Really, I'll go find her right away''.

''Wait a minute, be patient and you will see beautiful pictures of the plants made by famous photographer Craig P. Burrows. Prior to that you must know who is responsible for the color of the plant, flavonoids are responsible. Now listen to you carefully if you want to find out more about flavonoids''.

Flavonoids

Flavonoids are plant pigments built from 15 carbon atoms. They consist of two aromatic rings connected by a single unit of 3 carbon atoms, which can and do not have to build a third ring. Abbreviated this structure we can write C6-C3-C6. There is a large number of flavonoids. According to IUPAC, it is divided into three groups: true flavonoids or biflavonoids, isoflavonoids, and neoflavonoids. This division is based on the position of the phenolic ring ratios.

Flavonoids are a chemically extremely diverse class of secondary metabolites. Up to now about 9000 compounds have been described. Due to its large numbers, in addition to the IUPAC division, I will tell you another division, which I consider to be the best because it is the simplest, which is the Harbor divide. Harborne, that was divided on the basis of color into three large groups: anthocyanins, yellow flavonoids and colorless flavonoids.

Anthocyanins are the most important group of flavonoids. They are soluble in water. They are responsible for the blue purple and red color of flowers, fruits and leaves. They are widely spread from moss to flower beds.The yellow flavonoids are responsible for the yellow color of plant species. They are divided into yellow flavonols, yellow flavone, antochrome. Colorless flavonoids form the bulk of plant flavonoids. Although they themselves are not colored, they usually affect the full expression of the color of flowers and fruits. Namely, colorless flavonoids appear as cofactors with anthocyanins, where, depending on the pH of the solution in which they are located, they modify the color shade of the flower.

Biological role: One of the problems with which plants were met when uprise on the land was increased radiation of UV radiation. Flavonoids are thought to have been created as an adaptation to the terrestrial environment. These compounds are able to absorb UV radiation, so that the plants serve as UV filters. The proof of this assumption is their presence in traces of aquatic plants, but also in plants that grow in poor conditions where Uv radiation is considerably weaker. Recent research has shown that in the nucleus of young cells in the immediate environment in chromosomes there are flavonoids, which confirms their importance in protecting DNA from UV radiation.

As plant pigments, flavonoids play an important role in pollination. Namely, they are responsible for the intensive coloration of the floral region, which attracts pollinators. This role has colorless flavonoids. Although they are not visible to the human eye, colorless flavonoids reflect in the UV part of the spectrum. Namely, during the evolution of the plants, they developed so much the ability to attract pollinators. The plants developed this ability to make a road sign on their body. Flavonoids are responsible for this phenomenon.The plant has colored its body with specific colors that are visible only to insects. Is most interesting to me is the most beautiful way in which the plant has outgrown the organisms with the nervous system. One bees has a different visual spectrum of color than a human. Namely, she can see and something a little lower than that of a man. She sees the UV light. The plant somehow understood it (of course, before a man) and immediately used it. In the following pictures you can see how the insect sees the flowers of the plants. Is not it amazing?

Do you know why the leaves change colors in autumn? The cause of the change in color of leaves in autumn, is how chlorophyll decomposes large quantities of flavonol are translated into anthocyanins. My colleagues And I did an experiment at college, to see how the color of the flavonoid changes depending on the pH of the solution. The pH range ranged from 1 to 13. And in that order of color it changed from red, which was getting weaker, then the color became violet blue, afterwards it was green and in the end it was yellow. As you can see on the picture.

French paradox.

The French are much less to suffer from cardiovascular disease, andif consume significant amounts of saturated fat. The French prefer to eat unhealthy, and their diet is rich in fats and, according to all characteristics, they should be classified as a risk group for the emergence of cardiovascular diseases. But it is not so, french with a healthy nation, although they eat the healthiest food in Europe. Why is it so. By carefully studying the characteristics and differences of French and American nutrition for ten years, the scientists concluded that the main difference was the intake of red wine. Numerous controlled studies have shown that red wine - when consumed in moderate amounts - increases the level of HDL ("good" cholesterol) and reduces the level of LDL ("bad") cholesterol in the blood. And of course, flavanoids are responsible for this. Which find are in the wine. So when you eat some unhealthy food the next time, you drink a glass of wine.

Images are owned Craig P. Burrows. I thank him for allowing me to use his photos. And i found a couple of pictures on Pixabay. Second picture, a picture of a bee. And the last three images (Picture of leaves and pictures of food and wine) I found at Pixabay.