Plants are rich source of natural products used for centuries to cure various the plant-derived medicines are based upon the premise that they contain natural substances that can promote health and alleviate illness. Silver NPs represent material, which can be used as a potential antibacterial agent in medical applications and different commercial products due to its biological activity. Recent...

MCCUNE, B., and T. F. H. ALLEN. 1985. Forest dynamics in the Bitterroot Canyons, Montana. Can. J. Bot. 63: 377-383. Both shade-tolerant and shade-intolerant tree species may dominate young stands in canyon-bottom forests of the Bitterroot Range. Subsequent dynamics depend on growth characteristics of the colonizing species. Thus, much of the compositional variation arises at stand establishment...

PREMISE OF THE STUDY Taxus cuspidata (Taxaceae), which is well known for the effective anticancer metabolite paclitaxel (e.g., taxol), is an evergreen needle-leaved tree widely distributed in eastern Eurasia including Japan. We developed 15 microsatellite markers from this species and confirmed their utility for the dwarf variety nana, which is common in alpine regions along the Sea of Japan. ...

A simple, quick and efficient method for isolating total RNA from heavy browning cells was developed by adding polyvinylpyrrolidone, mercaptoethanol and 3 M NaAc during the process of the Trizol (a kind of a widely used RNA extraction buffer) method. High-quality total RNA was isolated and synthesized to cDNA. Transcript levels of four paclitaxel biosynthetic pathway genes: dxr, hmgr, ggpps and...

A new method for estimating fractal dimension of tree crowns from digital images is presented. Three species of trees, Japanese yew (Taxus cuspidata Sieb & Zucc), Hicks yew (Taxus × media), and eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.), were studied. Fractal dimensions of Japanese yew and Hicks yew range from 2.26 to 2.70. Fractal dimension of eastern white pine range from 2.14 to 2.43. The differe...

The yew tree (Taxus baccata) is an evergreen conifer that is widespread over central and southern Europe. The toxic effects of this conifer and its leaves have been known since ancient times. The seeds are generally responsible for accidental intoxications in childhood, whereas the bark and the leaves are mainly used for homicidal or suicidal attempts. We investigated the metabolic pattern of t...

Dhurrin, I ((S)-p-hydroxymandelonitrile-beta-D-glucopyranoside), and taxiphyllin, II (the (R) epimer), occur in the genera Sorghum and Taxus, respectively. Both derive biosynthetically from L-tyrosine via the hydroxylation of p-hydroxyphenylacetonitrile, III. (3R)- and (3S)-L-[3-3H1]tyrosine, prepared by enzymic hydroxylation of the corresponding phenylalanines, were fed separately to shoots fr...