BACKGROUND AND AIMS A significant number of species assigned to the Neotropical orchid sub-tribe Oncidiinae reward insect pollinators with oil produced in floral glands termed elaiophores. The latter may be glabrous (epithelial elaiophores) or hirsute (trichomal elaiophores). Although the detailed anatomy and ultrastructure of epithelial elaiophores have been studied for a number of genera, suc...

Treatment with aqueous toluene-ethanol has been shown to induce "pore" formation in plant cell membranes. The evidence is as follows: [List: see text]While the principal experimental material was roots of Atriplex nummularia Lindl., the fact that similar results were also observed with leaves of Pisum sativum L. and with the alga Chlorella pyrenoidosa Chik. suggests that the phenomenon is gener...

Expressed sequence tag (EST)-derived simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers could enrich the current resource of molecular markers. In this study, microsatellite markers were developed for Dendrobium nobile Lindl. by mining the ESTs. Twenty-eight EST-SSRs amplified 2 to 6 nucleotide repeats with a mean number of 2.82 alleles per locus. The observed and expected heterozygosities per locus ranged f...

Nowadays, green chemistry and its advantages are generating interest of researchers toward ecofriendly biosynthesis of the metallic nanoparticles. In this research, a rapid, simple and green method was developed for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles using aqueous extract of Prangos ferulaceae leaves. The synthesized silver nanoparticles were characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy, sc...

Amaryllidaceae are known as ornamental plants, furthermore some species of this family contain galanthamine, an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor approved for the treatment of Alzheimer ́s disease, and other alkaloids with interesting pharmacological activity. The chemical composition of alkaloids from Zephyranthes grandiflora Lindl. was analyzed by GC/MS. Seven known compounds, belonging to five s...

Previous reviews of plum phytochemical content and health benefits have concentrated on the European plum, Prunus domestica L. However, the potential bioactivity of red- and dark red-fleshed Japanese plums, Prunus salicina Lindl., so-called blood plums, appears to warrant a significant increase in exposure, as indicated in a recent review of the whole Prunus genus. Furthermore, Japanese plums a...

Two bioactive coumarins including 7-hydroxycoumarin (umbelliferone) and 7-hydroxyl-6-methoxy-3, 70-dicoumarylether (daphnoretin) were separated from the ethyl acetate extract of the stems of Edgeworthia chrysantha Lindl (E. papyrifera) by high speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC). The two-phase solvent system used was composed of n-hexane-ethyl acetate–methanol–water at an optimized volu...

Amaryllidaceae are known as ornamental plants, furthermore some species of this family contain galanthamine, an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor approved for the treatment of Alzheimer ́s disease, and other alkaloids with interesting pharmacological activity. The chemical composition of alkaloids from Zephyranthes grandifl ora Lindl. was analyzed by GC/MS. Seven known compounds, belonging to fi ve...