| Abstract | Medicine has utilised plant-based treatments for millennia, but precisely how theywork is unclear. One approach is to use a thermodynamic viewpoint that life arose bydissipating geothermal and/or solar potential. Hence, the ability to dissipate energyto maintain homeostasis is a fundamental principle in all life, which can be viewed asan accretion system where layers of complexity have built upon core abiotic mole-cules. Many of these compounds are chromophoric and are now involved in multiplepathways. Plants have further evolved a plethora of chromophoric compounds thatcan not only act as sunscreens and redox modifiers, but also have now become inte-grated into a generalised stress adaptive system. This could be an extension of thedissipative process. In animals, many of these compounds are hormetic, modulatingmitochondria and calcium signalling. They can also display anti-pathogen effects.They could therefore modulate bioenergetics across all life due to the conservedelectron transport chain and proton gradient. In this review paper, we focus on well-described medicinal compounds, such as salicylic acid and cannabidiol and suggest, atleast in animals, their activity reflects their evolved function in plants in relation tostress adaptation, which itself evolved to maintain dissipative homeostasis. |
|---|