Systemic acquired resistance

[John85]

Has somebody tried to induce SAR by treating the plants with salicilic acid (aspirin)?
What were the results please?

[Gerry Webster]

Has somebody tried to induce SAR by treating the plants with salicilic acid (aspirin)?
What were the results please?

Explain please.

[John85]

It is possible to boost a plant own defense mechanisms by spraying it with a very diluted solution of aspirin.Trials have been done for commercial important crops and by forestry research stations.
As it is cheap and easy i wonder if amateur gardeners have tried it too.

[Lesley Cox]

An aspirin crushed in a vase of water is an accepted way to prolong the vase life of cut flowers, or some anyway.

[ArnoldT]

Aspirin is a effect drug in interfering with the body's inflammatory process thereby reducing pain and swelling.

Not sure how it would work on plants.

[rob krejzl]

Arnold,

Wikipedia's brief article on SAR says that it is activated by an accumulation of endogenous salycylic acid.

[ArnoldT]

Rob:

I have read that plants mount a response to stress just as mammals and most other forms of life do.

It would make some sense that the mechanisms are "evolutionary" similar.

Reading a bit about aspirin it was derived from the bark of a willow.  It seems the American Indians chewed the bark to relieve aches, pains fevers.

[David Pilling]

Also present in and can be produced from meadowsweet (filpendula ulmaria).

Down at the bottom of this page:

http://wildflowerfinder.org.uk/Flowers/M/Meadowsweet/Meadowsweet.htm

it says

"Aspirin, or Acetyl Salicylic Acid, is also found in plants, being a plant hormone (phytohormone) which not only helps the plant grow but also is involved in a pathway signalling the presence of plant pathogens and mediating the plant defence against the pathogens."

There's a bit more interesting stuff about plants' defence mechanisms and aspirin...

(declaration of interest, I know the person whose web site this is).

[Maggi Young]

David, quite apart from the interesting aspirin connection, that is a nice website... thanks!

[Croquin]

sorry to ask, what is SAR ?
 
 

[Maggi Young]

Systemic acquired resistance

[Gerry Webster]

This a very technical paper on plant immune systems:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/n7117/full/nature05286.html

[Croquin]

you would use aspirin as a vaccine ?
 

[David Pilling]

you would use aspirin as a vaccine ?

Millions of people take one every day as a prophylactic (preventive) medicine.

[annew]

It is possible to boost a plant own defense mechanisms by spraying it with a very diluted solution of aspirin.Trials have been done for commercial important crops and by forestry research stations.
As it is cheap and easy i wonder if amateur gardeners have tried it too.

How 'very' diluted?