Hey MinuteEarthlings! If you join us on Patreon this month (April 2023) at https://patreon.com/minuteearth, we will draw you a custom MinuteEarth stick figure (that we could feature in an upcoming video) AND send you a custom coffee mug with your beautiful stick figure on it! Plants don't make caffeine just for us, so what DO they make it for? LEARN MORE ************** To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords: - Alkaloid: any of a class of nitrogenous organic compounds of plant origin which have pronounced physiological actions on humans. - Allelopathy: the chemical inhibition of one plant (or other organism) by another, due to the release into the environment of substances acting as germination or growth inhibitors. - Caffeine: a crystalline compound that is found especially in tea and coffee plants and is a stimulant of the central nervous system. - Pesticide: a substance used for destroying insects or other organisms harmful to plants or to animals. SUPPORT MINUTEEARTH ************************** If you like what we do, you can help us!: - Become our patron: https://patreon.com/MinuteEarth - Our merch: null - Our book: https://minuteearth.com/books - Share this video with your friends and family - Leave us a comment (we read them!) CREDITS ********* Cameron Duke | Script Writer, Narrator and Director Kate Yoshida | Narrator David Goldenberg | Narrator Henry Reich | Narrator Sarah Berman | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation Nathaniel Schroeder | Music MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC https://neptunestudios.info/ OUR STAFF ************ Lizah van der Aart • Sarah Berman • Cameron Duke Arcadi Garcia i Rius • David Goldenberg • Melissa Hayes Alex Reich • Henry Reich • Peter Reich Ever Salazar • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida OUR LINKS ************ Youtube | null TikTok | https://tiktok.com/@minuteearth Twitter | https://twitter.com/MinuteEarth Instagram | https://instagram.com/minute_earth Facebook | https://facebook.com/Minuteearth Website | https://minuteearth.com/ Apple Podcasts| https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/minuteearth/id649211176 REFERENCES ************** Tanti, A., et al. (2016). Allelopathic potential of caffeine as growth and germination inhibitor to popular tea weed, Borreria hispida L.. Current Life Sciences. 2. 114-117. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.163671 Brazier, Yvette (2016). “Adolescents drink too much caffeine”, https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/307526 Brychkova, G., et al. (2018). “Formation of xanthine and the use of purine metabolites as a nitrogen source in Arabidopsis plants”, https://doi.org/10.4161/psb.6304 Ceja-Navarro, J., et al. (2015). “Gut microbiota mediate caffeine detoxification in the primary insect pest of coffee”, https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms8618 Earth and Environmental Sciences (2015). “Coffee berry borer’s gut microbes detoxify caffeine”, https://eesa.lbl.gov/coffee-berry-borers-gut-microbes-detoxify-caffeine/ Diel, P. (2020). “Caffeine and Doping—What Have We Learned since 2004”, https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12082167 Jayson, C. (2015). “Caffeine vs. Chocolate: A Mighty Methyl Group”, www.discovermagazine.com/health/caffeine-vs-chocolate-a-mighty-methyl-group Lee, Y., et al. (2009) “Multiple gustatory receptors required for the caffeine response in Drosophila”, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0811744106 Lu, H., et al. (2016). “Earliest tea as evidence for one branch of the Silk Road across the Tibetan Plateau”, https://doi.org/10.1038/srep18955 Mustard, J. (2013). “The buzz on caffeine in invertebrates: effects on behavior and molecular mechanisms”, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-013-1497-8 Nall, A., et al. (2016).“Caffeine promotes wakefulness via dopamine signaling in Drosophila”, https://doi.org/10.1038/srep20938 Nathanson, J. (1984). “Caffeine and Related Methylxanthines: Possible Naturally Occurring Pesticides.”, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.6207592 Poole, R., & Tordoff, M. (2017). “The Taste of Caffeine”, https://doi.org/10.1089/jcr.2016.0030 National Center for Biotechnology Information (2023). “Caffeine”, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Caffeine Sledz, W., et al. (2017). Influence of Exogenously Supplemented Caffeine on Cell Division, Germination, and Growth of Economically Important Plants. https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/54463 Smyth, D. (1992). “Effect of Methylxanthine Treatment on Rice Seedling Growth”, https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00198025 Sugiyama, A., et al. (2015). “Caffeine Fostering of Mycoparasitic Fungi against Phytopathogens”, https://doi.org/10.1080/15592324.2015.1113362 Wright, G. A., et al. (2013). “Caffeine in Floral Nectar Enhances a Pollinator’s Memory of Reward”, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1228806