Phytoecdysteroids

Phytoecdysteroids are plant derived ecdysteroids. Phytoecdysteroids are a class of chemicals that plants synthesize for defense against phytophagous (plant eating)insects. These compounds are exact replicas of hormones used by the arthropod (insect) and crustacean (crab/lobster) families in the molting process known as ecdysis. When insects eat the plants with these chemicals they may prematurely molt, lose weight, or suffer other metabolic damage and die.

Chemically, phytoecdysteroids are classed as triterpenoids, the group of compounds that includes triterpene saponins, phytosterols, and phytoecdysteroids. Plants, but not animals, synthesize phytoecdysteroids from mevalonic acid in the mevalonate pathway of the plant cell using acetyl-CoA as a precursor.

Over 250 ecdysteroid analogs have been identified so far in plants, and Dinan has been theorized that there are over 1,000 possible structures which might occur in nature. Dinan also theorizes that many more plants have the ability to "turn on" the production of phytoecdysteroids when under stress, animal attack or other conditions.

These phytoecdysteroids have medicinal value and are part of herbal adaptogenic remedies like cordyceps, a fungus that grows out of the larvae of several insect species. (Although fungi are technically not plants, "fungalecdysteroid" does not exist as a category and phytoecdysteroid is the term used.) Medicinal plants tested to include phytoecdysteroids  include Achyranthes bidentata, Tinospora cordifolia , Pfaffia paniculata Leuzea carthamoides , Rhaponticum uniflorum (Zhang et al 2002), and Serratula coronata. The ginsengs and Eleutherococcus have not been studied for these compounds but exhibit similar characteristics.