Phytochemistry and Plant Defense

It is instructive to consider that the reductive sequences must be absent from mosses. Not only do these plants lack proanthocyanidins (79), but the structure of the lignin-like compound that encrusts the cell walls of Sphagnum is based on a cinnamic acid (82). 

Organisms are subject to attack by predators and may produce allelochemicals for protection. Algae, for example, contain defensive polyketides and sesquiterpen-oids. The former are generated by the condensation of acetate units, a process 

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