Yesterday I posted a link to a molecule of the month "Methyl Jasmonate". This is key part of the essential oil of jasmin. Like all the molecules of the month it is an interesting one.
The essential oils of plants intrigue me. Under a Darwinian worldview, the primary usefulness of jasmone in warding of predators and in warning (signalling by odor) other plants of such prddators might be a subject of obvious inquiry.
However jasmone has other properties -- like many of the plant kingdoms "essential oils" that have high-order and subtle effects on animals. Co-evloution is strecthed to explain them. And such explanations push into the border of ireducible complexity as well. So I do not think those interactions are as well studied under a different metaphysic than Darwinism.
Consider what MoM says about jasmone:
Paclitaxel (taxol), obtained from yew trees, is the most important anticancer drug in existence; it is difficult to produce enough paclitaxel to satisfy demand, since it is widely used to treat breast cancer and ovarian cancer in particular. One promising method for its production involves cell cultures from the yew tree. Scientists have discovered that adding methyl jasmonate to the cell cultures greatly increases the amount of paclitaxel produced.Excepting taxol, the investigation stays in bound of the plant kingdom, and even regarding the effective cancer fighter taxol, the investigations only concern increasing the yew tree cell cultures prodcution thereof.Another promising use for methyl jasmonate lies in prolonging the shelf-life of fresh fruit. It has been shown to reduce chilling injury as well as preventing the growth of mould on strawberries and grapes, as well as stopping bananas from turning brown. The role of methyl jasmonate is again believed to involve the production of defence proteins, which encourage formation of fungicides and antibacterial agents.
Yet if the metaphysic of Creation is Purpose, why then scientists might expect by shrewd classifications to find purposes for plant essential oils such as jsamone that have NOTHING to do with the plant kingdom, and no advantage to the plants, if only the most indirect and weak.
Plant essential oils such as cinnamon, hyssop, francinsense, lavender, jasmine, etc., etc. And more, when we are shrewd again.
We have found some, of course, by "accident of History", pre-Darwin. That would be our diets, our perfumes, and some passed-from-practitioner-to-practioner herbiology. Again, all found prior to the onset of Darwinism.
Yet, almost undoubtably, we will find many more and many more amazing uses, if we break out of the constraining metaphysic of Darwinism.
We could even start with the Australian "tea oil", which seems to have been -- by accident of history -- entered into the western herbiology at the time of Darwin.