Chemicals, Natural and Man-made

[A sample page]

To many people, the sight of a chemical name is terrifying. There is a strong tendency to avoid foods labelled as containing synthetic chemicals, and turn instead to foods advertising themselves as ‘no additives, no preservatives’. The problem with this is that our food, especially from plants, contains an enormous number of chemicals. This reflects the skill of plants as chemical innovators. Merely because a particular chemical occurs naturally in a plant does not mean that it is automatically harmless. This book has presented detailed information about some natural chemicals that are present in high enough levels to be a risk to our health. In addition, there are even more chemicals that would be very worrying – except that they are only present in small quantities.

Natural chemicals in plants
As one randomly chosen example, here is what we swallow with every ripe strawberry:

Amyl acetate
amyl butyrate
amyl valerate
anethol
anisyl formate
benzyl acetate
benzyl isobutyrate
butyric acid
cinnamyl isobutyrate
cinnamyl valerate
diacetyl
dipropyl ketone
ethyl acetate
ethyl amyl ketone
ethyl butyrate
ethyl cinnamate
ethyl heptanoate
ethyl heptylate
ethyl lactate
ethyl methylphenylglycidate
ethyl nitrate
ethyl propionate
ethyl valerate
heliotropin
hydroxyphenyl-2-butanone
alpha-ionone
isobutyl anthranilate
isobutyl butyrate
4-methylacetophenone
methyl anthranilate
methyl benzoate
methyl cinnamate
methyl heptine carbonate
methyl naphthyl ketone
methyl salicylate
phenethyl alcohol
gamma-undecalactone
vanillin