What Is The Waste Product Of Photosynthesis?

People tend to think that plants are very dependent since they are immobile, but that couldn't be more wrong. Unlike humans, who rely on other organisms to produce the energy they consume, plants are autotrophs, which means "self-feeding." Thanks to the process of photosynthesis, plants produce energy directly from the sun.

To perform photosynthesis, plants must collect three things: water, carbon dioxide and sunlight. Most plants draw water from the ground using roots. They collect carbon dioxide from the ambient air via tiny pores scattered throughout their leaves, flowers, stems and roots. Finally, plants use specialized pigment molecules called chlorophyll to absorb light from the sun. These molecules accumulate in the leaves and stems and are responsible for the green color of plants.

Photosynthesis is a chemical process with the following equation:

6CO₂ + 6H₂0 ⇒ C₆H₁₂O₆ + 60₂

This means that, in the presence of sunlight, plants take six molecules of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and six molecules of water (H₂O) and break them apart. They then rearrange those individual units, converting them into glucose (C₆H₁₂0₆) plus six molecules of oxygen (O₂). If you look at the chemical equation, you can see there are the same number of carbons, oxygens, and hydrogens on each side of the equation; they have merely been rearranged.

Glucose is the energy that plants require to grow and produce flowers and fruit. After photosynthesis, plants use the glucose they need right away and store the remainder for later. Because plants don't use oxygen, they release it as a waste product through the same pores they used to take in carbon dioxide. This is very helpful for humans and other animals who breathe the oxygen that plants release into the atmosphere.

Plants help humans in another way via photosynthesis, too: since humans are heterotrophs who don't self-feed, they rely on the glucose stored in plants for energy. They access this energy by either directly consuming vegetables and fruits or consuming animals that fed on those plants.

Even thought plants don't roam the Earth like other life forms, they certainly aren't weak or dependent. In fact, they might be some of the most independent creatures on the planet, using a specialized process to self-feed and, as a fortunate byproduct, produce the energy and oxygen that humans need to sustain life.