What Are Secondary Metabolites and Their Importance in Plant Biology?

[Aafia]

In biology i have studied that in plants some secondary product examples are cuticle , lignin etc ... can you tell me why it is called secondary products ... thank you.

 

[Ygggdrasil]

Primary metabolites are considered to be directly involved in the growth and replication of an organism, while secondary metabolites are not directly involved in these processes. The exact classification of every metabolite as primary and secondary probably is not precise, though one criteria that is used is how prevalent these metabolites are across different types of organisms (with metabolites present in all types of organisms considered to be primary metabolites while metabolites that are produced only in certain types of organisms are considered secondary metabolites).