Subject: re: Overdose of plant vitamins From: "William W. Robinson" <roseguy@verizon.net> Organization: Date: Sat, 06 Apr 02 16:17:19 Message-ID: <MOD$020406.27846@rec.gardens.ecosystems>
Maia, the creative one, has come up with an idea of using the
collective knowledge and/or experience of this group to help her
do her home work. Specifically, her teacher asks about the toxicity
of vitamins to plants. A good question and a very cleaver way to
come up with an answer.
A good starting point, I think, is to underline that toxicity is
relative and not absolute. Almost all things are toxic to both plants
and animals if taken in large enough quantities. I think it was
Hippocrates who said, "The toxicity is in the dose" and he goes back
to about the third century B.C.
I used Google as a search engine and looked up "vitamin toxicty" and
"vitamin toxicity to plants." I found a lot of suff. Perhaps the best
was Electron Food Rap, Vol 8 #28, an extension publication from Purdue.
A good summary of vitamin funstion is in "Introductory Plant Biology"
by Kingsley Stern, " Vitamins, which function in activating enzymes,
are organic molecules of varied structure that are synthesized in the
membranes and cytoplasm of cells. They are essential in relativerly
small amounts for the normal growth and development of all organisms."
Note: a number of materials such as the heavy metals, were once thought
to be "toxic" in an absolute sense. They are now considered, at least
by some, as being essential plant nutrients BUT IN VERY SMALL QUANTITIES.