Plants produce aspirin in response to environmental stress

By Andrei Ionescu | Earth.com |

EARTH.COM - A new study led by the University of California, Riverside (UCR) has found that plants are able to protect themselves from environmental hazards such as insects, heat, and drought by producing salicylic acid, which is the main ingredient in aspirin. Better understanding this process could help scientists make plants more resilient to the increased stresses caused by climate change.

“We’d like to be able to use the gained knowledge to improve crop resistance,” said study co-first author Jin-Zheng Wang, a plant geneticist at UCR. “That will be crucial for the food supply in our increasingly hot, bright world.”

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