The sunscreening properties of plants
Do plant oils and extracts protect from UVA and UVB? To what extend? This article shares what spectral analyses studies reveal about plants based photoprotection. One of the most common questions asked regarding the oils I have tested in my home experiment, was whether they protect from UVA and UVB radiation. The short answer is yes and the full answer is this: “Successive increments in the number of absorbing molecules in the path of the beam of monochromatic radiation absorb equal fractions of the radiation power travel through them”
Why and how plant compounds protect from UV
Evolved to harvest light, plants absorb sunlight to produce sugars in a process of photosynthesis. The molecules involved in this process are type of pigments that capture the energy of specific wavelengths and transfer it to the site of photosynthesis. However in some conditions, sunlight has the potential to damage the machinery plants use to collect light and that in turn inhibits their ability of optimal function and growth.
