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ERIC Number: EJ1003025
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Nov
Pages: 5
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0021-9584
EISSN: N/A
Up the Garden Path: A Chemical Trail through the Cambridge University Botanic Garden
Battle, Gary M.; Kyd, Gwenda O.; Groom, Colin R.; Allen, Frank H.; Day, Juliet; Upson, Timothy
Journal of Chemical Education, v89 n11 p1390-1394 Nov 2012
The living world is a rich source of chemicals with many medicines, dyes, flavorings, and foodstuffs having their origins in compounds produced by plants. We describe a chemical trail through the plant holdings of the Cambridge University Botanic Gardens. Visitors to the gardens are provided with a laminated trail guide with 22 stopping points marked on a map. For each of the 22 familiar plants, the principal chemical component(s) and their applications are identified. The virtual trail on the gardens Web site provides additional chemical information including links to the experimentally determined three-dimensional structures of the molecules from the Cambridge Structural Database. Visitors to the gardens with quick response (QR) code readers on their mobile phones will also be able to access this enhanced chemical information digitally. Our hope is that the trails (actual and virtual) will take advantage of students' inherent interest in the chemistry of the natural world and encourage them to learn more about the myriad of vital chemicals that are available in the plant kingdom. (Contains 1 table and 6 figures.)
Division of Chemical Education, Inc and ACS Publications Division of the American Chemical Society. 1155 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 800-227-5558; Tel: 202-872-4600; e-mail: eic@jce.acs.org; Web site: http://pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: High Schools; Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A