Anesthetics, Anesthesia, and Plants
Open accessAbstract
General anesthesia, its nature, and how exactly it works are still poorly understood. Plants can also be anesthetized and lose their responses to external stimuli. Interestingly, plants are known to produce endogenous anesthetic compounds to deal with stress. Plants offer an excellent model object for studies on anesthetics and anesthesia.
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The same anesthetic vapors that make us unconscious also reversibly slow or halt motility in single-celled organisms and plants.
“Remarkably, the same anesthetic vapors that make us unconscious also reversibly slow or halt motility in single-celled organisms and plants (Kelz and Mashour 2019, Yokawa et al. 2019).”
From A quantum microtubule substrate of consciousness is experimentally supported and solves the binding and epiphenomenalism problems (2025) · cites this paper as Yokawa et al. 2019
Plants can release anesthetic gases when stressed, possibly as a self-regulating feedback loop.
“it is known that plants can emit anesthetic gases when stressed, possibly asa self-regulating feedback loop [9]”
From The Biology of General Anesthesia from Paramecium to Primate (2019) · cites this paper as [9]
Cites
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Self-citationYokawa, K., Kagenishi, T., Pavlovič, A., Gall, S., Weiland, M., Mancuso, S., & Baluška, F. (2017) · Annals of Botany · doi:10.1093/aob/mcx155 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
Self-citationUnderstanding of anesthesia – Why consciousness is essential for life and not based on genes
Baluška, F., Yokawa, K., Mancuso, S., & Baverstock, K. F. (2016) · Communicative & Integrative Biology · doi:10.1080/19420889.2016.1238118 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
Self-citationElectron spin changes during general anesthesia in <i>Drosophila</i>
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Sentience and Consciousness in Single Cells: How the First Minds Emerged in Unicellular Species
Baluška, F., & Reber, A. (2019) · BioEssays · doi:10.1002/bies.201800229 · Cited by 163 · see citing works
Self-citationThe Biology of General Anesthesia from Paramecium to Primate
Kelz, M. B., & Mashour, G. A. (2019) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2019.09.071 · Cited by 151 · see citing works
Wiest, M. C. (2025) · Neuroscience of Consciousness · doi:10.1093/nc/niaf011 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
“Remarkably, the same anesthetic vapors that make us unconscious also reversibly slow or halt motility in single-celled organisms and plants (Kelz and Mashour 2019, Yokawa et al. 2019).”
Microtubule-stabilizer epothilone B delays anesthetic-induced unconsciousness in rats
Khan, S., Huang, Y., Timuçin, D., Bailey, S., Lee, S., Lopes, J., Gaunce, E., Mosberger, J., Zhan, M., Abdelrahman, B., et al. (2024) · eneuro · doi:10.1523/eneuro.0291-24.2024 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
- Authors
- Yokawa, K., Kagenishi, T., & Baluška, F.
- Affiliations
- Kitami Institute of Technology (JP)
- University of Bonn (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Yokawa, Ken
- Baluška, František
- Venue
- Trends in Plant Science
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2019-01
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 12-14
- ISSN
- 1360-1385 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2901704194
- Cited by
- 35
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 6
- FWCI
- 3.53
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Locations
- Trends in Plant Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) (submittedVersion)
- Kitami Institute of Technology Repository (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (18K14726)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Plant and Biological Electrophysiology Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine › Anesthesia and Sedative Agents
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Developmental Neuroscience › Anesthesia and Neurotoxicity Research
- Keywords
- general anesthesia, plant stress response
- MeSH terms
- Anesthesia, Anesthetics, Animals, Models, Biological, Plants, Plant Physiological Phenomena
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