General Notes of Chemotaxonomy and Types

Taxonomy refers to a process of classification of living organisms into various categories of taxa. Modern taxonomy comprises identification and study of different characteristics, identification, classification and nomenclature of living organisms. Taxonomy collects information about various external and internal structure, cell structure, biochemistry, physiological characteristics, developmental processes and also ecological features of the organisms to detect the similarities and differences. Carolus Linnaeus is recognised as the Father of Taxonomy. He was the first to discover the species nomenclature. The classification based on the chemical constituents of nature like different living components of the environment that have useful, harmful and inactive chemical composition is known as Chemotaxonomy.

Classification of Plants Taxonomy

The Plants Taxonomy is divided into three parts:

1. Numerical Taxonomy: is carried out using computers, and it is based on all the observable characteristics. All the different characters are assigned various numbers and codes and then the data is processed. By this way each and every character is given equal attention and importance and also hundreds of characters can be considered at the same time.
2. Cytotaxonomy: it refers to the use of information such as number, structure and behaviour.
3. Chemotaxonomy: this uses chemical constituents of plants to obtain various natural products.

Chemotaxonomy

Many natural products are produced via various organisms, whereas these products are mainly known for plants, prokaryotes, algae, fungi and insects. Chemistry plays a vital role in the interaction of all these organisms within an ecosystem. These natural products are biologically active and are used for over thousands of years as a traditional source of medicine and as a natural poison. The modern study of chemotaxonomy suggests that this type of Taxonomy helps in the classification of plants based on their chemical composition. All secondary metabolites are produced from animals; these metabolites are derived from primary metabolites. This system of classification is generally considered better instead of the traditional method, this is because of the ease of working method.

Classification of Chemotaxonomy

Phenolics, Alkaloids, Non-Protein amino acids and Terpenoids refers to four widely exploited groups utilized for chemotaxonomy classification. These groups possess a wide variety of chemical diversities, distribution and function. Thus three distinct categories of classification is used in chemotaxonomy, they are discussed below:

1. Primary Metabolites: these types of compounds are involved in the fundamental metabolic pathways. Most of these metabolites are utilized by plants for their growth and development. Primary Metabolites have a universal occurrence as for example: citric acid which is used in the Kreb cycle.
2. Secondary Metabolites: these metabolites usually perform non essential functions in plants. It helps in providing protection and defence  against predators and pathogens and provides non-vital functions. E.g. alkaloids, phenolics, amino acids and glucosinolates.
3. Semantics: it includes information regarding carrying molecules such as DNA, RNA and proteins.

Importance of Chemotaxonomy

Chemotaxonomy is used in various aspects of classification. This type of chemical evidence is seen in all the groups of plant kingdom starting from simple and lower organisms like fungi and bacteria up to the higher levels and advanced groups of angiosperms. In a successful natural products research chemotaxonomy based plants are selected. The major uplift  of chemotaxonomy is generally due to the advancement in analytical techniques for various chemical analysis in order to detect even a trace amount of chemical compounds. This method helps in improving the current system of plant differentiation, it also helps in developing the knowledge regarding the natural relationship of plants.

Conclusion

Chemotaxonomy is basically connected with the use of phytochemical data in systematic botany. It refers to a type of biological classification that is mainly based on similarities in compounds that are present in the cell of an organism. The structure and chemical composition of compounds are taken into consideration between the animals that are being classified. The compounds comprising biomolecules, metabolites etc that are being produced by plants or animals are used for classification. This Chemotaxonomy method is very useful in modern scientific studies and research purposes. We hope that with the help of this article you will be able to clear all your concepts regarding taxonomy, plants taxonomy, and chemotaxonomy. We suggest you focus more on understanding the topic rather than just mugging it up.