Scientists test human anesthetics on plants, put them to sleep

BERN, Switzerland: A team of scientists in Switzerland has revealed that they have been able to discover a strange way through which plants can be made unconscious for a fixed period of time.

According to media reports, this team of scientists from Italy’s University of Florence and Germany’s University of Bonn, wanted to know how plants like Venus flytrap and Shy plant grow, flourish and come to life after they die. This research has affected scientists’ study of humans and the effects certain anesthetics have on them.

During the experiment, scientists used an anesthesia named lidocaine, the same drug that is used on humans, on various plants like Mimosa leaves and Venus flytrap.

The plants reacted to the drugs in a similar fashion; they became immobile and unresponsive.

'The fact that plant cells responded to these compounds in a similar manner to animals and humans is intriguing,' the scientists wrote in the study.