Sorbus commixta Hedl. (Rosaceae) has been traditionally used in oriental countries for the treatment of asthma and other bronchial disorders. In this study, a chalcone glycoside was isolated from the ethyl acetate extract of the fruits of this plant. The compound was identified as neosakuranin based on the spectroscopic analysis and comparison with literature data. This is the first report of i...

BACKGROUND Severe canopy-removing disturbances are native to many temperate forests and radically alter stand structure, but biotic legacies (surviving elements or patterns) can lend continuity to ecosystem function after such events. Poorly understood is the degree to which the structural complexity of an old-growth forest carries over to the next stand. We asked how pre-disturbance spatial pa...

The effects of invasive nonnative species on community composition are well documented. However, few studies have determined the mechanisms by which invaders drive these changes. The literature indicates that many nonnative plant species alter light availability differently than natives in a given community, suggesting that shading may be such a mechanism. We compared light quantity (photosynth...

Enzymatic browning, which accompanies food preservation processes based on drying, is a common obstacle to obtaining marketable and consumer-appealing products. In this paper, we investigate the application of one of the methods commonly used in order to counter the browning process, namely dipping. Dipping involves a soaking of the foods in liquids or solutions in order to suppress the activit...

The use of nuclear energy generates large amounts of different types of radioactive wastes that can be accidentally released into the environment. Soil-to-plant transfer is a key process for the dispersion of radionuclides in the biosphere and is usually described by a concentration ratio (CR) between plant and soil concentrations in radioecological models. Our knowledge of the soil-to-plant tr...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Large-scale ploidy surveys using flow cytometry have become an essential tool to study plant genome dynamics and to gain insight into the mechanisms and genetic barriers framing ploidy diversity. As an ideal complement to traditional techniques such as chromosome counting, the analysis of cytotype diversity in plant systems such as Sorbus provides primary investigation into ...

Mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia) is widespread in nearly whole Europe from sea level to timberline. On north exposed peaks of some mountains the Southern Alps (Ticino/ Switzerland and North Italy/ Verbano-Ossola) small mountain forests build forest limit above 1500 m, so at Monte Lema, Morissolo, I Balmit Mottarone. often occurs on former clearings as pioneer tree secondary plant succession. sit...