Euphorbia mosaic virus (EuMV) was found in a symptomatic passionfruit (Passiflora edulis) plant from Homestead, Florida, USA, as well as in the symptomatic weed Euphorbia heterophylla This is the first identification of EuMV in Florida and the United States and the first report of a natural infection of passionfruit by EuMV.

Introduction To be invited to deliver a presidential address is a great honour signifying, firstly, the support of peers in being elected to the presidency and, secondly, the impending conclusion of this responsibility. It is, in accordance with tradition, the single occasion on which the opinion of the president is not questioned, when he can even discuss the taboo subjects of sex, religion, a...

"The Iliac Passion" traces a return from the new but busy and rapidly growing discipline of "bioethics" to its source in "fundamental philosophical inquiry." The dilemma between bioethics and medicine is examined in two ways. First, the philosophical concept of the "big question" is presented. If we ask of life or of human experience "What does it all mean?", the "it" needs to be defined, and w...

Graduate students and post-docs often ask “What do I need to do to succeed?” One popular answer is to boost your career by networking feverishly, finding powerful mentors, learning to pinpoint hot areas, and publishing in sexy journals. This approach has two problems: it makes succeeding in biology sound like learning to sell used cars, and it relies heavily on prognostication, a skill that eve...

Depression is the most common illness observed in the elderly, adults, and children. Antidepressants prescribed are usually synthetic drugs and these can sometimes cause a wide range of unpleasant side effects. Current research is focussed on natural products from plants as they are a rich source of potent new drug leads. Besides Hypericum perforatum (St. John's wort), the plants studied includ...

The present study was planned to investigate the chemopreventive efficacy of Chrysin (CH) against renal carcinogenesis in Wistar rats. Ferric nitrilotriacetate (Fe-NTA) is a potent nephrotoxicant and known renal carcinogen. CH is a natural flavonoid found in honey, propolis, blue passion flower. In vitro data suggests that it has anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic properties. Ren...

A lot of traditional medicinal plant has antibacterial activities. Most of these plants are freshly chewed or grounded and used directly to treat infectious bacterial diseases. However, some practices employ a traditionally spontaneous fermentation on boiled extracted leaf, root or other parts of the plant. This work reports a laboratory stimulated spontaneous fermentation of leaf extracts from...

The recent trend to place monetary values on ecosystem services has led to studies on the economic importance of pollinators for agricultural crops. Several recent studies indicate regional, long-term pollinator declines, and economic consequences have been derived from declining pollination efficiencies. However, use of pollinator services as economic incentives for conservation must consider ...

BACKGROUND Passion flower (Passiflora incarnata) is used in traditional medicine of Europe and South America to treat anxiety, insomnia and seizure. Recently, it has shown antianxiety and sedative effects in human. METHODS In this study, anticonvulsant effects of hydro- alcoholic extract of Passiflora, Pasipay, were examined by using pentylentetrazole model (PTZ) on mice. Pasipay, diazepam, a...

Passiflora incarnata L. commonly known as passion flower belongs to Passifloraceae family and is one of the most popular and widely used medicinal plants in traditional medicine. The plant has a long history of application in herbal medicine as an anxiolytic and sedative-hypnotic. Extracts prepared from P. incarnata have been reported for their diverse ranges of pharmacological actions includin...