Page 76 - Photosynthesis: The Green Miracle

58 chemical compounds in 21 plant scents
1. Four -dimethoxy ben- Benzyl methyl ether Lilac alcohols
zene C15 hydrocarbons Lilac aldehydes
2. Phenyl nitroethane Caryophyllene Limonene
3. Five-dimethoxy toluene Cis 3-hexenyl acetate Linalool
4. -Keto beta ionone Cis 3-hexenyl butyrate Linalool oxides
4. Terpineol Cis jasmone Methyl 5-hepten-2-one
5. Dimethyl 2-ethyl Cis/trans ocimene Methyl anthranilate
pyrazine Citronellol Methyl benzoate (C H O )
8 8 2
a) Caryophyllene Cyclocitral Methyl salicylate
a) Elemene Delta dodecalactone n-Hexanol
a) Farnesene Dihydro beta ionol n-Pentadecane
a) Terpineol Dihydro beta ionone Nerol-geraniol
Anisic aldehyde Ethyl jasmonate Nerolidol
Anisyl acetate Eugenol Paradimethoxy benzene
b) Damascenone Geraniol Phenyl ethyl acetate
b) Lonone Geranyl acetone Phenyl ethyl alcohol
b) Pinene Heptadecadiene T – terpinene
Benzaldehyde (C H O) Hexyl acetate Trans beta ocimene
7 6
Benzyl acetate Indole x-pinene
Benzyl alcohol (C H O) Jasmin lactone X – terpineol
7 8
The variety of plant scents is a manifestation of the matchlessness and sublimity of Allah’s
creation. Sometimes there may even be different scents in different flowers of the same
species, because different flowers use different chemical formulae. Plants cannot know
what substances will combine to produce what scents. Not even human beings can know
that, unless they have received special training. For example most readers will not know
the smell produced by the chemicals shown in the table above. Plants, however, have
been producing fragrances by selecting for themselves the most appropriate formulae
for millions of years, just as if they knew this.

Roses on one side of the world still smell the same as they do over on the
other.
The way that plants combine some atoms, produce compounds and

manufacture their fragrances as a result is a great miracle. And every-
where in the world, roses combine the same atoms to manufacture the
same perfume. The slightest variation in the compound they produce, a
difference of even one atom, can completely alter or even eliminate that
perfume. However, they never make a mistake in the formula concerned.
So who bestows this consciousness, intelligence and information, pos-
sessed only by chemical engineers on plants? Could plants all over the
world have come into possession of these formulae by coincidence?

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