The name Aracea comes from the Latin Araceae, the plant family that is literally the hottest on Earth.

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“The undisputed champions of botanical thermogenesis are the aroids (Araceae),” a subset of plants that evolved the ability to produce heat.

Their flowers can reach up to 45°C even when the surrounding air temperature is much lower. A reason for this unusually high temperature is thought to attract insects to pollinate the plant; and to prevent tissue damage in cold regions.

The heat producing organ of an aroid is called the spadix, a spike of minute flowers closely arranged around a fleshy axis. The spadix is where carbohydrates are converted into heat in a very similar way as in animals and humans. The redox energy created in the mitochondrial respiratory pathway is not conserved for the production of ATP, but is liberated as heat. In addition, cDNAs encoding uncoupling proteins (UCPs) have been isolated from several plants. Read more… (UCP1 is responsible for heat production in human brown adipose tissue.)

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The company name, Aracea Therapeutics, “stems” from these special heat-producing plants. We both endeavor to burn calories by enhancing thermogenic capacity.

New Reekie – Power Plant

blank — Titan arum showing the spadix at around 35°C.

Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) rigged a thermal camera to take time-lapse images to record the heating of the spadix. Titan arum is a real power plant as it literally generates heat through chemical reactions within the spadix. The purpose of this is to spread phytochemicals far and wide in the forest so that potential pollinators are drawn to the flower. The legendary stench is really only experienced in the middle of the night on the first night when the flower opens. This always begins with the heating of the spadix in the early evening, with a temperature peak around midnight when the spadix will reach human body temperature.Read more…

In the Heat of the Night

This video introduces the fascinating world of Hot Plants: flowers that generate heat (thermogenesis) to release scents and attract pollinators. Some plants, such as philodendron and sacred lotus, are able to regulate their floral temperature, maintaining their flowers at up to 30°C above air temperatures over several days. Read more…

Aracea to Research in Brown Fat

Brown adipose tissue, or brown fat, only recently became a HOT target of research because previously we did not think adults had brown fat. It was only because of technological advances in 2007 that we are now able to measure brown fat in adults and view its activity.

Previously, it was thought that only newborns coming into a cold world have brown fat, which disappeared as they grew and their environments were kept warm. Research on brown adipose tissue in animals has been going on for nearly a century. We have extensive data, know how brown fat functions, and understand its importance in animals. Now that we can measure it in human adults, brown fat has become a target for treatment of obesity, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, dyslipidemia, kidney fibrosis, diabetic neuropathy, and other metabolic diseases.

Brown adipose tissue/brown fat has emerged as a major regulator of whole-body energy metabolism in humans due to the ability to convert the chemical energy in circulating glucose and fatty acids into heat.