Background: Illicium verum is widely cultivated in southern China especially in Guangxi province. Its fruits has been traditionally used in Chinese medicine. In recent years, it has been the industrial source of shikimic acid. Usually the residues after extracting shikimic acid are treated as waste. Thus, the aim of this study was to optimize the extraction conditions of cellulase-ultrasonic as...

Antifungal activity of ethanol-water extracts of four medicinal plants, cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum Presl.), anise (Pimpinella anisum L.), black seed (Nigella sativa L.) and clove (Syzygium aromaticum L. Merr. & Perry.) was investigated against pea (Pisum sativum L.) root-rot fungus Rhizoctonia solani. In vitro antifungal activity test shown a high growth inhibition at concentration (4%) of each...

In today’s medical world, antibiotic toxicity and multidrug resistant pathogens are the two greatest challenges which require immediate attention. In the present study, the antibacterial and antioxidant activity of spices have been investigated. The antibacterial activity of eight common Indian spices was analyzed against nine clinical pathogenic bacteria by Kirby Bauer Disc Diffusion method an...

Natural products obtained from plants with biocidal activity represent an alternative and useful source in the control of biodeterioration of documentary heritage, without negative environmental and human impacts. In this work, we studied the antimicrobial activity of seven essential oils against microorganisms associated with the biodeterioration of documentary heritage. The essential oils wer...

Two new monoterpenes, p-mentha-1(7),8-dien-2-O-β-D-glucoside and trans-2,4-dihydroxy-2,4-dimethyl-trans-1-acetic acid γ-lactone were isolated from the fruits of Illicium lanceolatum along with trans-2,4-dihydroxy-2,4-dimethyl-cis-1-acetic acid γ-lactone, (1R,2R,4R)-8-p-menthen-1,2-diol, trans-sobrerol, (1S,2S,4R)-p-menthane-1,2,8-triol and (1S, 2S, 4R, 8R)-p-menthane-1,2,9-triol. The structures...

In two experiments, we investigated the impact of odor preexposure treatments on the acquisition of an olfactory discrimination in dogs. In the first experiment, four groups of dogs were each given five days' odor-exposure treatment prior to discrimination training. Dogs in the exposure group were exposed to anise extract (S+) for 30 min daily. Dogs in the Pavlovian-relevant pairing group recei...

Olfactory perception, and especially hedonic evaluation of odors, is highly flexible, but some mechanisms involved in this flexibility remain to be elucidated. In the present study we aimed at better understanding how repeated exposure to odors can affect their pleasantness. We tested the hypothesis of an affective habituation to the stimuli, namely a decrease of emotional intensity over repeti...

Rabbits from three synthetic lines were used in the experiment. Line R was selected for growth for 24 generations. Lines V and A were selected for litter size at weaning for 30 and 33 generations, respectively. Sensory analysis was carried out on the Longissimus muscle. The parameters evaluated were: juiciness (J), hardness (H), fibrousness (F), flouriness (Fl), intensity of rabbit flavour (IRF...

It is shown that surface tension can cause redistribution of melt in a partially molten medium, in accordance with a non-linear diffusion equation for the melt fraction. The associated diffusivity D depends on the surface energy and is positive (stable) for dihedral angle <60 ø and negative (unstable) for dihedral anise >•0ø•1 In the more likely stable case, D ~ . 10 cm .s is typical •or •antle...

Chemical investigation of the aerial parts of Illicium simonsii resulted in the isolation of nine new compounds, simonsols A-E (1-5), simonsins A-B (7-8), terpene-sesquineolignans, clovanedunnianol (9), and p-menthadunnianol (10). Compound 5 was equilibrated with 7 as an inseparable mixture. The structures were elucidated by extensive NMR and MS analysis. Compounds 9, 10, and the mixture of 5 a...