osmoticum
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From osmotic + -um. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “No English -um suffix explains this.”)
Noun
[edit]osmoticum (plural osmotica)
- (biology) Any substance that acts to supplement osmotic pressure in a cell
- 1998 June 19, Emanuel Epstein, “How Calcium Enhances Plant Salt Tolerance”, in Science[1], volume 280, number 5371, , pages 1906–1907:
- Second, potassium is a major osmoticum of plant cells, an especially crucial feature for plants under high-salt conditions, and one requiring controlled partitioning of the element among organs, tissues, and cell compartments.