The use of plants to treat skin ailments has strong support in the current trend of drug discovery. Propionibacterium acnes, an anaerobic pathogen, plays an important role in the occurrence of acne. The present study was conducted to evaluate the antimicrobial and antioxidant activities against P. acnes and cytotoxic effects of 48 medicinal plants grown in South Africa. The broth dilution and D...

Sucrose-phosphate synthase (SPS) is a key enzyme in the regulation of sucrose metabolism, being responsible for the synthesis of sucrose 6-phosphate from fructose 6-phosphate and uridine 5 ' diphosphate-glucose. W e report on the isolation and characterization of cDNA clones encoding SPS from Craferosfigma planfagineum Hochst., a resurrection plant in which the accumulation of sucrose is consid...

CONTEXT Traditional medicinal plants have long been used in Ethiopia to treat human and livestock ailments. Despite a well-documented rich tradition of medicinal plant use in the country, their direct antimicrobial effects are still poorly known. OBJECTIVE To investigate the antimicrobial activity of 19 medicinal plant species that were selected based on the ethnobotanical information on thei...

We studied the responses to light and nutrient availability of the two Afromontane conifers Juniperus procera Hochst. ex Endl., reputedly a shade-intolerant species, and Afrocarpus gracilior Polger C.N. Page, a shade-tolerant species. The species behaved similarly in response to light and nutrient availability. Both species showed positive growth rates at photon fluxes of 0.6-0.8 mol m(-2) day(...

Sclerocarya birrea (A.Rich.) Hochst (Anacardiaceae) is a savannah tree that has long been used in sub-Saharan Africa as a medicinal remedy for numerous ailments. The purpose of this study was to increase the scientific knowledge about this plant by evaluating the total content of polyphenols, flavonoids, and tannins in the methanol extracts of the leaves and bark (MLE and MBE, respectively), as...

AIM OF THE STUDY This study was conducted to document herbal medicines used in the treatment of malaria as well as the existing knowledge, attitudes and practices related to malaria recognition, control and treatment in South Coast, Kenya. METHODS Data was collected using semistructured questionnaires and interviews. A focused group discussion held with the community members, one in each of t...

We identified a novel 66 kDa boiling-stable protein (BspA) in cultured shoots of aspen (Populus tremula L.) which was highly expressed in response to gradual water stress. The BspA protein, which was highly expressed as early as 1 h after initiation of a drought treatment, accumulated during progressive water stress, decreased on rehydration, and was expressed in response to abscisic acid (ABA)...