During photosynthesis, plants capture sunlight and use solar energy and carbon dioxide to fuel chemical reactions. Green plants are extremely significant because they are the only organisms with the biochemical ability to “make” chemically complex organic food for themselves, starting with simple inorganic substances.
The green plants, also called the producers, trap the solar energy and convert it into chemical energy of the food. Food is required to provide energy. The compound that can be easily broken down in order to yield energy is glucose.
Thus, the plants synthesize glucose, which is stored in the form of starch by a process called photosynthesis. ‘Photo› means ‹light› and ‹synthesis› means ‹to build›, thus ‹photosynthesis› means ‹building up by light›. The plants use the energy in sunlight to prepare food from carbon dioxide and water in the presence of chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is present in the green colored bodies called ‘chloroplasts’ inside the plant cells. In fact, the leaves of a plant are green because they contain tiny green colored bodies called chloroplasts (which contain chlorophyll).