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.
Because of this property, melanin is thought to protect skin cells from UVB radiation damage, reducing the risk of cancer, and it's considered that exposure to UV radiation is associated with increased risk of malignant melanoma, a cancer of melanocytes (melanin cells).