CONSTANTINO MANUEL TORRES Archaeological evidence for the antiquity of psychoactive plant use in the Central Andes. This work presents an evaluation of the evidence for the antiquity of psychoactive plant use by the indigenous populations of the Central Andes. The first problem is to determine what constitutes clear archaeological evidence. The most direct form of evidence is the finding of pla...

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE Herbal medicine value chains have generally been overlooked compared with food commodities. Not surprisingly, revenue generation tends to be weighted towards the end of the chain and consequently the farmers and producers are the lowest paid beneficiaries. Value chains have an impact both on the livelihood of producers and on the composition and quality of product...

The use of herbal remedies by African farmers in the treatment of livestock diseases was investigated using a range of methods, including group interviews, structured interviews, semi-structured interviews and participant observation. The study was concerned mainly with the 'why' and 'how' of herbal remedy use among African livestock holders farming on communally-owned land in central Eastern C...

Potential of root system of plants from wide range of families to effectively reduce membrane impermeable ferricyanide to ferrocyanide and blue coloured 2,6-dichlorophenol indophenol (DCPIP) to colourless DCPIPH2 both under non-sterile and sterile conditions, revealed prevalence of immense reducing strength at root surface. As generation of silver nanoparticles (NPs) from Ag+ involves reduction...

The present study was designed to determine the physicochemical properties of yam (Dioscorea) solution fermented by L. bulgaricus, the protective effect of fermented Dioscorea opposita Thunb. on stomach lesions, and the possibility of its application to fermented dairy products. When the concentration of yam increased, the pH increased in raw powder samples but not in extracted powder samples. ...

Objective: The aim of this preliminary study was to investigate gel forming of Makjong powder in effervescent blend and evaluate the probability to develop Makjong effervescent powder formulation for medicinal and beverage applications. Methods: Blank effervescent blend consisted of citric acid, tartaric acid, and sodium bicarbonate with different ratio was prepared. The effervescent blends wer...

Near infrared microscopy (NIRM) has been developed as a rapid technique to predict the chemical composition of foods, reduce analytical costs and time and ease sample preparation. In this study, NIRM has been evaluated as an alternative to classical chemical analysis to determine the nitrogen and carbon content of small samples of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) leaf powder. Near infrared spec...

We previously reported that adding freeze-dried tomato powder from transgenic plants expressing the apolipoprotein A-I mimetic peptide 6F at 2.2% by weight to a Western diet (WD) ameliorated dyslipidemia and atherosclerosis in mice. The same dose in a human would require three cups of tomato powder three times daily. To reduce the volume, we sought a method to concentrate 6F. Remarkably, extrac...

Traditional knowledge and ethno-botanical use of plants have been widely acknowledged all over the world. Certain people of India, using whole plant of Euphorbia hirta L. as an effective remedy for varities of diseasese. The documentation of traditional knowledge from eastern Uttar pardesh area reveals that it is highly widely used in Ayurveda. Pharmacological and physicochemical details of E.h...

BACKGROUND Many oxidative stress related diseases are as a result of accumulation of free radicals in the body. A lot of researches are going on worldwide directed towards finding natural antioxidants of plants origins. The aims of this study were to evaluate in vitro antioxidant activities and to screen for phytochemical constituents of Helichrysum longifolium DC. [Family Asteraceae] aqueous c...