Secondary Plant Compounds: Ethnobotanical Considerations On Their Importance For Human Nutrition And Medicine, Pt 2, Importance Of Secondary Compounds In The Domestication Of Food Plants

While humans are metabolically prepared to digest a vast number of plants, they have restricted themselves to a few domesticated plants. The role that secondary plant compounds may have played for this selection is examined in nuts, legumes and other plants. Plants with toxic secondary compounds have apparently not been systematically avoided in plant domestication. Instead, acute toxicity is prevented by using detoxication techniques, e.g. in legumes or Cycas palms. However, the uniform exposure to a limited number of food plants has revealed other health hazards related to secondary plant compounds.