This article explores the ways in which risk and responsibility were conceptualised in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by surgeons, their patients and the lay public. By this point surgery could be seen, simultaneously, as safe (due to developments in surgical science) and increasingly risky (because such progress allowed for greater experimentation). With the glorification of...

A ring species arises when a parental population expands around an area of unsuitable habitat in such a way that when the two fronts meet they behave as distinct species while still being connected through a series of intergrading populations. Ring species offer great possibilities for studying the forces causing species divergence (e.g. the nature of pre-zygotic or post-zygotic reproductive is...

The toxic effect of binary and tertiary combinations of Euphorbia hirta Linn latex powder with other plant molluscicidal compounds, were evaluated against the freshwater snails Lymnaea (Radix) acuminata and Indoplanorbis exustus in pond. These combinations showed significant time and dose dependent effect against both the snails. These compounds at higher doses were also lethal to freshwater fi...

Lyophilised aqueous extract of Euphorbia hirta L. (Euphorbiaceae) has been evaluated for behavioral effects in mice. The extract did not induce any toxic effect when it was administered i.p. and orally. Sedative properties could be confirmed with high doses (100 mg of dried plant/kg, and more), by a decrease of behavioral parameters measured in non-familiar environment tests (activitest and sta...

Euphorbia macrostegia or Persian wood spurge is one of the seventeen endemic plants of this genus in Iran. Three triterpenoids, 24-methylenecycloartan-3β-ol (1), butyrospermol (2) and cycloartenol (3) and three diglycerides, 1,2-di-O-α-linolenoyl-sn-glycerol (4), 1-O-linoleoyl-3-O-palmitoyl-sn-glycerol (5) and 1-O-α-linolenoyl-2-O-palmitoyl-sn-glycerol (6) were isolated from the hexane soluble ...

Evidence is presented that phorbic acid is formed in the latex producing cell system, rather than in photosynthetic or chlorophyll-free tissues of Euphorbia resinifera Berg. When a branch of the plant was kept first in a (14)CO(2) atmosphere with 12 hr light-dark periods for 2 days and then left under natural conditions in the air outside for at least 2 to 3 days, radioactive phorbic acid was f...

Little is known about the prevalence, diversity, evolutionary processes, genomic structures and population dynamics of viruses in the divergent geminivirus lineage known as the capulaviruses. We determined and analyzed full genome sequences of 13 Euphorbia caput-medusae latent virus (EcmLV) and 26 Alfalfa leaf curl virus (ALCV) isolates, and partial genome sequences of 23 EcmLV and 37 ALCV isol...

Several macrocyclic diterpenes with jatrophane or lathyrane skeletons were isolated from methanol extracts of Hungarian Euphorbia species and evaluated for multidrug resistance (MDR)-reversing activity on a human colon cancer cell line. MDR-reversing activity was tested by using a standard functional assay with Rhodamine 123 as a fluorescent substrate analogue of epirubicin. In the model of com...

Phytochemical investigation of the aerial parts of Euphorbia erythradenia Bioss. (Euphorbiaceae), one of Iranian endemic Euphorbias, with particular attention to triterpene constituents, using methanol solvent extraction was carried out. Five known triterpenes, including four cycloartanes and oleanolic acid, were isolated for the first time and identified using NMR and Mass techniques. Anti HIV...

The roots of Euphorbia kansui are considered an important traditional folk medicine. In this study the ethanol extracts of E. kansui were investigated. A new tetracyclic triterpenoid, euphane-3b,20-dihydroxy-24-ene, in addition to five known triterpenoids with euphane skeletons were isolated. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of physical and spectral techniques (1D-, 2D-NMR and MS, ...