The green or gold leaf hostas including the variegated forms of these colored leaf perennials are a slugs idea of smorgasbord delights. The waxy coated leaves of this blue hosta are plants that slugs donât like to eat.
Skin pigmentation. Melanin, whose primary function is in pigmentation, has many more important functions to perform in the human body. Protection from UV radiation. Melanin functions as a sunscreen and as a broad spectrum sun radiation absorbent. The absorbed energy causes redox reactions, and both eumelanin and pheomelanin form free radical species. Eumelanin, being more photostable scavenges the originated oxidative species and neutralizes them.
Melanocytes are the cells that synthesize pigment. Through a series of enzymatic reactions these cells efficiently produce melanin pigment that determines skin color. Once it is formed, melanin is packaged into tiny vesicles called melanosomes. The melanocyte has tiny tentacles that it uses to transfer melanosomes to other skin cells. It is interesting to note that dark-skinned patients do not have more melanocytes but instead have melanocytes with more pigment producing power.