Although growers spend much of their time and resources in protecting their cotton crop against attack by insect pests and diseases the plant itself is already well armed against these invaders and your task might be hopeless if not for the complex array of natural chemicals produced by the plant. Of particular note are the terpenoid aldehydes, such as gossypol, found in the oil rich gossypol glands all over the plant. These glands are characteristic of cotton and its wild relatives and are full of an oil that is rich in different terpenoid chemicals. When an insect eats some of a leaf these glands burst and release a toxic array of chemicals, some of which have been shown to have a high potency against insects. Besides this constitutive defence against herbivory, the plants also have an inducible defence mechanism that can detect and respond to disease pathogens with the production of more terpenoids and other antifungal chemicals as a first line of defence to limit their invasive capacity.