Showing posts with label Caffeine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Caffeine. Show all posts

Saturday, July 1, 2023

Why do plants produce caffeine?

I've covered this topic on my cruise ship presentations on coffee.
A bit of plant science for this post...

Caffeine is the most widely consumed psycho-active substance in the world!

Caffeine is not the work of Satan, nor the product of some mad scientists working in a chemistry lab; rather, it’s the result of millions of years of plant evolution. 

All plants build a variety of compounds including enzymes. Many of these molecules serve as a defense against enemies of the plants—large and small. 

Building caffeine is an expensive process (energy-wise) for the plant, so why do they do it?