Tea and coffee are the most popular beverages worldwide. People holding cups of coffee at public places, workspaces littered with coffee cups are a common sight. While tea is made from the leaves of plants Camellia sinensis, coffee is made from coffee beans. Both of them contain caffeine which is a drug notoriously known for its effects on human body. The most noticeable effect is the boost in energy that it provides. More often it is used as a drug by many people. It is natural to wonder why plants have caffeine.
Caffeine is well-known to have ill-effects even on humans. Plants secrete caffeine to protect themselves from insects and animals that might eat them. That is, they are a defence mechanism to protect them from destruction. Coffee contains caffeine in much higher amounts than tea. A strong cup of coffee contains as much as 200 mg of caffeine. Tea contains much lesser amount of caffeine.
Large doses of caffeine cause anxiety, jitters and general malaise. Gradually the effects become more dangerous and they result in life-threatening situations like irregular or weak heartbeats ultimately causing death.
Though caffeine is very dangerous for both insects, animals and humans alike, their effects are more pronounced in smaller animals and insects. Human bodies have bigger biological systems and organs which work very efficiently to remove all the toxins and chemicals from the body. On consumption of a cup of coffee, there are many enzymes in the liver which work together and convert the harmful caffeine to harmless by-products. Eventually they get extracted from the body.
Unlike humans, insects do not have this luxury. They have a very small body and do not have large livers full of different kinds of enzymes. Since they have a restricted food chart, they only eat specific kinds of food. That is, their digestive system enables them to digest only certain types of food. They carry only the enzymes essential for them to digest the food they normally eat. Even a very small amount of toxin is highly toxic for insects thanks to their small body and defence mechanisms.
Different parts of plants produce varying amounts of caffeine. This is evidence enough that caffeine plays defensive role in plants. The concentration of caffeine varies in different parts of plant depending on the vulnerability. For example, leaves especially tender young leaves contain maximum amount f caffeine as compared to other parts. This is because they are the most vulnerable. Young leaves being tender, they are easy to chew for herbivores. Hence they secrete high amounts of caffeine thus playing gracefully carrying out the role of defence mechanisms. Tougher, bigger leaves are hard to chew and therefore less vulnerable to attacks from herbivores.
This is the secret of tippy leaves. The tea leaves when young and tender are plucked because they contain high caffeine concentration as compared to mature leaves. The next time you go shopping for tea or coffee you know what to choose. Before having your cups of coffee remember what you are consuming.
As you take a sip of coffee, be sure to get a good deal when you are buying coffee. HostingCoupons.org strives to provide you with good hosting coupons code for yahoo, godaddy and hostgator at http://www.hostingcoupons.org/hostgator-coupon/
