You know, a little bit of chemistry, a little bit of human biology, and a little bit of plant biology.
And the basic unit of life (well, as defined so far) is the cell.
I'm sure that you all remember taking a toothpick and rubbing it on the inside of your cheek (or jabbing it- you know who you are) and then looking at it under the microscope...
...and since you only looked at 400x, you pretty much saw a bunch of blue fried eggs.
Well, most cells have more "stuff" inside; the "stuff" is a collection of specialized compartments called organelles. (you know, because they're small and organs. No, I don't know why they didn't call them organettes- sorry). Anyway, there are different types of organelles in different types of cells. Plant cells (and some bacteria) have the chloroplast organelle.
Sound familiar? It's what makes plants look green or purple.
See, you do remember you biology!
Ok, well, it turns out that cells can instruct their chloroplasts to breakdown and form a newly discovered type of organelle:
The Tannosome
The tannosome is filled with inactive proteins called "tannins", which are basically cytotoxins (cell poisons). The tannins are designed to kill off invading organisms, like bacteria and fungus; when the cell is infected, the cell can release these tannins in a suicidal attempt to protect the larger organism.
cool, huh?
Anyhoo, it kind of explains why tannic wines taste so bad.
Here's more the story, if you're interested.
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