History of Chemical Taxonomy

Butterflies and Plants: A Study in Coevolution

“…The first two, and probably the third and fourth, are generally regarded as fairly closely related. Each one of the first five families (Rubiaceae only in part) is characterized by the abundant presence of raphides, bundles of needlelike crystals of calcium oxalate (see discussion in Gibbs, 1963). In a very interesting experiment, Merz (1959) offered mature leaves of Vitis (Vitaceae) to larvae of Pterogon proserpina (Sphingidae) .…”

The evolution of chemosystematics

“…As D.M. Smith wrote in the introduction to ''Phytochemistry and Angiosperm Phylogeny'' (Smith, 1981), ''Taxonomic botany in particular, having been born of the shaman's art and the herbalist's practice of medicine should be most benefited by a renewed occupation with the chemical properties of plants' '. The early history of chemosystematics has been described fully by Professor Darnley Gibbs (1963Gibbs ( , 1974, a member of the original Board of Phytochemistry, in a paper entitled ''History of Chemical Taxonomy'' in which he summarized ''comparative phytochemistry as applied to plant systematics'', thereby including the words ''taxonomy'' and ''systematics'' in the same treatment. I shall take chemosystematics to include chemistry as part of the general Natural History of the plant with reference to its relationship to similar plants and its interaction with its environment, both living and non-living.…”

Arsenal for survival: secondary plant products

“…-Some of the first applications of secondary chemical data to the practice of plant taxonomy can be dated back to the times of James Petiver and Nehemia Grew . Other early pioneers were A. P. de Candolle and J. Lindley (see Gibbs, 1963). Lindley (1830), for example, used the presence of cyanogenic glycosides to separate Amygdaleae (positive) from Chrysobalaneae (negative).…”