From coca parting to coffee beans , citizenry apply plants to farm many of the most popular drugs in the world . But whether it ’s your $ 5 morning latté or a note of coke , you might be surprised to find out why plants bother to build the molecules behind that bombination in the first place . Strangely enough , many industrial plant - based drugs — such as caffeine , cocaine , nicotine and morphia — are all made for the precise same reason : to crusade off insect . Why exactly do world have it away have insect repellant so much ?
Caffeine, Cocaine, Nicotine and Morphine: Pleasurable Pesticides
According toDr . David Kennedy , who study plants and the human brain at Northumbria University , to read what it is about nature ’s pesticides that gets us so agreeably in high spirits , it first helps to look at the world from a plant ’s linear perspective . “ Unlike animals , plants are settle in where they live , and ca n’t really get out from any threats they might need to avoid , ” Kennedy tell . So to keep hungry herbivores at bay , he excuse , many plant can manufacture a deal of justificatory chemicals .
Now some plants , like the itchy toxicant ivy or poison oak tree , use brutish force chemical substance weapons . But others — such as opium poppies and tobacco plant — take a more delicate approach . These plant still require some creature to get secretive enough to help them pollinate and breed , so rather than launch a full - scale toxic offensive , they ’ll but mess with a munching bug ’s mind .
To do so , these plants make neurotoxic drug call in alkaloid , which change the balance of chemical in a germ ’s brain . At high enough levels , these drugs can kill insects ( and o.d. human beings ) but little amounts will only send them on a bad trip .
Human and Insect Brains
Oddly enough , although these alkaloid evolved to interact with insect mentality , “ their effects on mankind are often funnily similar , ” say Kennedy . “ For instance , if you give cocaine to bees , it will make them trip the light fantastic toe more . If you give caffeine or other amphetamines to fly sheet , it will wake them up and make them more aroused . And if you give morphine to louse , it ’ll have the same analgesic sort of effect . ”
But Kennedy explains this is n’t all that surprising . “ Humans have fundamentally the same mentality as an insect . Ours are a little more complicated , but functionally they ’re both very like , ” he says . For instance , in both brains many of the chemical that the neurons use to communicate — call neurotransmitters — have the same jobs .
But the genial outcome of these drug does differ in one Brobdingnagian way . “ insect do n’t find these drugs habit-forming or enjoyable , they just find them hideous , ” says Kennedy . This is because human brains have a delight - causing reinforcement system which is unlike anything found in the principal of a bug — and is based around a neurotransmitter call dopamine . “ In humans , by full chance , these drugs just highjack that advantage system , ” and can flood our encephalon with dopamine , say Kennedy .
This dopamine rush is what causes the gratifying effect of these drug — which can range from a perky inclination ( caffein ) to gripping euphoria ( cocaine)—and is also what make these drug so addictive . But germ just feel crazed or twitchy , without the pleasure .
Marijuana and Psychedelics
Not all alkaloid or insect repellant in the plant world evoke such a braggart waving of pleasure in humans . In fact , drugs like cocaine and caffein are only a diminutive subset , and there are plenty of standardized drug out there that will make you little more than sick .
And Kennedy says that when speaking about these habit-forming drug , it ’s also deserving mention a few other chemical that plants raise to interact with the wildlife around them : psychedelic drugs like psilocin ( the active ingredient in wizardly mushrooms ) and tetrahydrocannabinol ( the active component in marijuana ) .
Kennedy explains that these psychedelics are clear-cut from the addictive alkaloids — and this is because of both their chemic social structure and the fact that they ’re not used solely by plants as pesticides . Rather , these psychedelic drugs can have a orotund mixture of occupation inside the industrial plant , from fight fungus and microbes to luring in pollenate insects . But just like the alkaloid , their insane effect on the human mind is entirely coinciding , says Kennedy .
