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I found this picture while researching about sustainability factors through practices such as agricultural practices, economic practices, social practices, and political practices.  I thought it was a bleak, but sadly accurate depiction of what the world would look like with all of these practices would go unchecked.  You can see the social practice going unchecked, through one person walking alone, as well as the agricultural practices going unchecked with the agriculture within the picture being very unkempt and almost dead.  You can also see the economic practices and political practices going unchecked through the factories contributing to pollution in the background, where it is not helping with sustainability overall. From all of the other pictures and diagrams that I saw when researching this topic, I found this picture to depict a world with agricultural practices, economic practices, social practices, and political practices to go unchecked the most from all of the contributing factors within the picture.

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The most influential chemical used in the world that is derived from a plant, to me, is the chemical of Salicylic Acid.  Salicylic Acid is a compound that is derived and found in a handful of plants including Salix alba (white willow), Spirea spp. (wintergreens), and Betula spp. (birch). I think that this is the most influential chemical that is used in the world derived from a plant because of its diverse range of uses. This chemical is used, most popularly, as Aspirin, which is a very big product that most people use in the world, and even for everyday use sometimes. This chemical of Salicylic Acid is a popular treatment for inflammation, fever, and most commonly pain. This type of chemical of Salicylic Acid is also commonly used in skin care products and treatments, and can treat conditions such as acne, psoriasis, and other skin conditions. The reason that I chose the article below is because it talks about the actual formation of how Salicylic Acid is used for important treatments, such as Aspirin. I also liked that it talked about the actual chemical compound and how it is derived from the various plants.

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Do you know where your drugs come from? Most of the drugs we use today came from plants originally.

Plant chemicals (phytochemicals) are responsible for some of the most important medical advancements of our time.
Some examples include:

Antibiotics

Chemotherapy

Pain management

Hallucinogenics

Here are some of the most common drugs that were derived from, or inspired by compounds found in plants.

Aspirin is a popular treatment for pain, inflammation, and fever. It works by inhibiting an enzyme known as cyclooxygenase (COX).

The COX-1 enzyme converts arachidonic acid to thromboxanes and prostaglandins which are responsible for sustaining inflammation and blood clotting.

The compound was first synthesized in 1890 by a man named Felix Hoffmann.

Aspirin is modelled after the naturally occurring polyphenol salicylic acid - a compound found in a handful of plants including Salix alba (white willow), Spirea spp. (wintergreens), and Betula spp. (birch).

All of these plants were traditionally used for conditions involving injury, pain, and inflammation.

The difference Aspirin has to its naturally occurring counterpart is the addition of an acetyl chemical group, which gives Aspirin its antifibrinolytic effects and improved bioavailability.

Quinine is used as a malaria and babesiosis medication. It remains one of the primary treatments for malaria to this day under the brand name Quinalaquin, and the generic name Quinine.

It's an alkaloid taken from the Cinchona calisaya tree from South America. It was a popular herb used by the local Quechua tribes of the Amazon rainforest, which eventually caught the attention of the Jesuits who brought it to Europe.

Although the drug can be synthesised, the most economically viable method of production is to extract it from the cinchona tree. Unfortunately, there are many side effects to this medication, including permanent kidney damage.

Opiates are a class of chemicals that target the opioid receptors in the human body that regulate pain and temperature control.

Most opiates are classified as benzylisoquinoline alkaloids which can be either naturally occurring, or synthetic.

These alkaloids were discovered from the Opium poppy (Papaveraceae somniferum), starting with codeine and morphine. In 1874, a chemist named C.R Alder Wright synthesised a similar compound called diamorphine, more commonly referred to as heroin.

For the first 23 years of this discovery, nothing was done.

It wasn't until Felix Hoffmann (the creator of aspirin), re-synthesised it that it caught the attention of Bayer Pharmaceuticals, where it was commercialised as a pain management drug.

Heroin has since been banned in most countries due to high addiction rates and drug abuse, however, opiates in general are still widely used in modern medicine. Morphine, codeine, methadone, and Fentanyl are all used to provide varying potencies of pain management.

Myriocin (aka ISP-1 or thermozymocidin), is an antibiotic and immunosuppressant derived from the sterile (non-spore-producing) fungus Mycelia sterilia and entomopathogenic (bug-eating) fungus Isaria sinclairii.

Scientists modified myriocin to produce a compound known as fingolimod (compound FTY720), which is used to treat autoimmune conditions like multiple sclerosis.

Penicillin was the very first class of antibiotics ever discovered. It's made from a mould known as Penicillium chrysogenum. It was known for years that this mould was able to kill off bacteria, including Streptococcus and Staphylococcus strains that were responsible for substantial loss of human life around that time. A Scottish scientist named Alexander Fleming finally isolated the active constituent in 1928.

Unfortunately, Alexander was a poor communicator, and couldn't attract any serious attention from the media or his peers on his finding. It wasn't until 1940 that penicillin was mass produced and incorporated into conventional medicine.

Although there are many penicillins, they're all classified as beta-lactam antibiotics. They work by blocking a key process during cell division (peptidoglycan cross-link formation), causing the cell to eject its insides, effectively killing the bacteria. This is most effective in gram-positive bacteria.

Digoxin is a heart medication used for heart failure, and cardiac arrhythmias (such as atrial flutter, or atrial fibrillation). It was isolated from the foxglove plant (Digitalis lanata) in 1930, however, the first mention of foxglove derivatives for cardiac related conditions goes all the way back to 1785. It was used to treat a condition known as dropsy, which is an accumulation of fluid under the skin, often as a result of chronic heart failure.

The use of digoxin changed how we treated cardiovascular disease for many years, but has since fallen out of favour due to some of its more dangerous side effects. In fact, in 2003 a nurse named Charles Cullen killed 40 of his patients with overdoses of digoxin and other heart medications.

Digoxin works by inhibiting sodium, potassium, ATP channels in the heart. This causes sodium levels to build up inside the cells of the heart, which then causes calcium to increase inside the cell as well. This heightened calcium allows stronger contraction of the heart, while expending less energy. It also has an effect on the vagus nerve, which is used to control the heart rhythm.

Paclitaxel is a chemotherapeutic agent derived from the bark of the Pacific Yew (Taxus brevifolia).When making the medicine, the yew tree was killed. As demand for the drug increased, the drug became involved in an ecological controversy. The need for the medication was scrutinised in light of the extensive damage it was causing to yew populations in North America. Researchers began seeking more sustainable ways to obtain this compound.

The drug is now made using semisynthetic methods obtained from liquid plant cultures. Although the plant tissue is still needed to make the medicine, it poses no threat to wild yew populations because manufactures now rely on sterile lab-grown cultures of the plant.

Paclitaxel works by inhibiting a compound called tubulin inside the cells.

Tubulin is needed during cell division, by inhibiting this compound, Paclitaxel is able to prevent cell division in the body.

Since cancer often involves rapidly dividing cells, the drug is used to target these rapidly dividing cells more specifically, slowing the growth of cancer.

Unfortunately, there are also a wide range of side effects, mostly as a result of the inhibition of rapidly dividing cells.

Side-effects include:

Vincristine and vinblastine are alkaloids taken from the Madagascar periwinkle plant (Catharanthus roseus).

Both are intravenous chemotherapeutic agents used for cancers like Hodgkin's disease and neuroblastoma. Vinblastine was isolated first in 1958, with vincristine to follow in 1961.

Similarly to Paclitaxel, these alkaloids work by preventing cells from dividing by blocking tubulin. This has a marked effect on cancers, which are often characteristic in how rapidly they divide. As a result of this action, both have fairly strong side effects including hair loss, constipation, nausea & vomiting, neutropenia (low white blood cells), and lung damage.

Lysergic acid was made in 1938 by a man named Albert Hofmann in Switzerland.

It's made from a naturally occurring alkaloid called ergotamine found in the fungus called ergot (Claviceps purpurea). It can now be manufactured synthetically.

Hofmann didn't identify the psychoactivity of the extract for another 5 years. Soon after his discovery, it was picked up by psychologists a treatment for psychiatric illnesses, and by the United States government in an attempt to use mind control (for which it was unsuccessful).

LSD works by stimulating various types of serotonin receptors (5HT2A, and 5HT2B), as well as the dopamine D2 receptors in the brain.

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9 Famous Examples of Drugs That Came From Plants

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Do you know where your drugs come from? Most of the drugs we use today came from plants originally. Plant chemicals (phytochemicals) are responsible for some of the most important medical advancements of our time. Some examples include: Antibiotics Chemotherapy Pain management Hallucinogenics Here are some of the most common drugs that were derived from, or inspired by compounds found in plants.

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I chose this resource in the form of a short article/ web page that talks about the Third Agricultural Revolution, or the Green Revolution. I chose this article as my source the represents the invention and innovation from the third agricultural revolution and how it catapulted the world of nations into a global society for many reasons. One reason that I chose this article was because it discusses the new technologies and innovations that happened during this revolution, such as high-yielding varieties of cereals, including dwarf wheats and rices, controlled water-supply (which was usually involving irrigation), and new methods of cultivation like mechanization. Something else that this article discusses is that all of these new innovations and technologies were being adopted as a whole, which also led to this agricultural revolution becoming more innovated into global society than before. This article also discussed the foundations that were heavily involved and also helped this revolution become one that impacted human life even more, including the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.

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The increase in agricultural production throughout the world since 1950 has been so great it has come to be known as the Green Revolution. World agricultural production in 1964 was one and a half times that of 1948. Much of this increase was due to the redistribution of land and to the grouping of small holdings into larger units.

Scientists have contributed new varieties of grass that provide better cover and strength, thus holding the soil in place. Advances have been made in the development of new kinds of plants capable of withstanding drought and maturing fast enough to avoid frost damage. Research has led to better production methods, fertilizers and pesticides.

The Green Revolution, or Third Agricultural Revolution, is a set of research and technology transfer initiatives that increased agricultural production worldwide, particularly in the developing world, beginning most markedly in the late 1960s. The initiatives resulted in the adoption of new technologies, including high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of cereals, especially dwarf wheats and rices, in association with chemical fertilizers and agro-chemicals, and with controlled water-supply (usually involving irrigation) and new methods of cultivation, including mechanization. All of these together were seen as a 'package of practices' to supersede 'traditional' technology and to be adopted as a whole.

Both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation were heavily involved. One key leader was Norman Borlaug, the "Father of the Green Revolution", who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. He is credited with saving over a billion people from starvation. The basic approach was the development of high-yielding varieties of cereal grains, expansion of irrigation infrastructure, modernization of management techniques, distribution of hybridized seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides to farmers.

The term "Green Revolution" was first used in a speech on 8 March 1968 by the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), William S. Gaud, who noted the spread of the new technologies: "These and other developments in the field of agriculture contain the makings of a new revolution. It is not a violent Red Revolution like that of the Soviets, nor is it a White Revolution like that of the Shah of Iran. I call it the Green Revolution."

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The increase in agricultural production throughout the world since 1950 has been so great it has come to be known as the Green Revolution. World agricultural production in 1964 was one and a half times that of 1948. Much of this increase was due to the redistribution of land and to the grouping of small holdings into larger units.

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One impact that this diagram gives as a change that came to human life during the Neolithic Revolution was disease. Before the Neolithic Revolution, most families would travel and be nomadic in their lifestyle and way of living. However, when the Neolithic Revolution began, people were able to settle down in one place with the help of the domestication of both plants and animals. This was because people were able to farm and practice agricultural ways of developing new resources, such as food, and this gave people the chance to settle down in one place, generally where farming could take place. However, people would begin to settle down around the same places, as these specific places would have the best opportunities for farming and having animals and plants thrive. This led to smaller areas of land becoming more populated and the spread of disease became very apparent, happening both among animals and humans.

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I believe that the world biome of temperate grasslands is in the most danger of ecological change out of all the other biomes. This is because they are the least protected biome out of all the other world biome, with only around 3.4% being protected when they occupy around 8% of the earth's surface. This type of world biome used to have many different types of wildlife, such as North American bison, but now only support remnant populations of wildlife. Temperate grasslands have also recently been used for other types of projects that do not improve the health of the biome, but instead make it much worse. This is from more than half of all the temperate grassland biomes in the world being used for projects such as forest plantations, urbanization, crop production, and other uses such as development. All of these types of projects taking place in these temperate grasslands are resulting in new issues, such as habitat loss, a decline in biodiverstiy, and even fragmentation and desertification. Climate change is also a concern and causes a huge impact in the future of the world biome of temperate grasslands.

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The website that I chose for this assignment talks about the plants that are unique specifically to Georgia.  I chose this website because it gives many examples of all the different kinds and types of vascular plant species living only in the state of Georgia, all from the four plant types of angiosperms, gymnosperms, bryophytes, and pteridophytes.  Another factor that made this website stand out from others was that it would put the scientific names for the plants, and not just their plant names, such as with the "Macha Wheat Triticum macha".  This website also gives specific examples of what kinds of plant species are native to only Georgia, such as the birch Betula megrelica, the gymnosperium smirnowii, or the pasqueflower Pulsatilla georgica.

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Among the 380
vascular plant species known only from Georgia are a birch Betula megrelica (GTC
WM), Muscari alpanicum (mobot),
Iris winogradowii
(flickr),
a pear Pyrus
sachokiana (Nat’l
Geo.),
Macha Wheat Triticum
macha (ETH
Zürich WM),
Cyclamen colchicum
(Cyclamen
Soc.),
Gymnospermium smirnowii
(mobot),
Pulsatilla georgica
(iNaturalist), Allium candolleanum
(mobot),
Helleborus
abchasicus (mobot),
Betonica abchasica
(mobot),
Cephalaria sosnowskyi
(Nat’l.
Geo.), Anthemis zyghia (mobot),
Kemulariella tugana
(mobot),
Astragalus tanae
(p. 2 of science.org.ge
WM
pdf), Scorzonera
ketzkhoweli (mobot), Sempervivum sosnowskyi
(mobot),
Sempervivum
charadzeae (fernwood-nursery.co.uk
WM),
Echinops foliosus
(iNaturalist),
Thymus tiflisiensis
(iNaturalist),
Campanula dzaaku (mobot),
and Campanula kolakovskyi
(mobot).
Chymsydia (GBIF) (BHL)
is an endemic genus. Endemic freshwater fish include a loach Oxynoemacheilus
phasicus (GBIF),
the Alazani Goby Ponticola
alasanicus (BDJ),
and a scraper Capoeta
svanetica (ResearchGate).
There is controversy over whether the
only known specimens
of the catfish Silurus
chantrei (GBIF)
came from the Kura River in Georgia or instead from the
Tigris-Euphrates region.

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I chose this video about the process of photosynthesis for multiple reasons, the main one being that it broke down the process.  I thought that it showed the break down of the process in a very detailed and concise way that made it easier to understand all throughout.  I also like that it showed what would happen when something would react, such as producing sugar from the Calvin cycle.  Another factor that made me pick this video was that it broke down each reaction and showed what was produced by each reaction.  Overall, I thought that this video was very informative and gave the basics of how photosynthesis takes place.

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Oops. Something went wrong. Please try again. | Khan Academy

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I chose this picture because it shows how trees benefit both the environment and society in various ways. For the environment, the trees give protection to other smaller plants and even animals, especially in more urban places as shown in the picture. They are also sometimes able to produce food and nutrients that help wildlife and other plants thrive as well. In this picture, the trees are in a more urban area, which means that there is probably more pollution than in a rural area. However, the trees are also able to help with filtering certain pollutants, including gases, which make them important to society.