background: many natural products from plants have been recognized to exert anticancer activity. in this study, ethanolic extracts of selected medicinal herbs from iranian flora including alyssum homolocarpum fisch. (from seeds), urtica dioica l. (from aerial parts), cichorium intybus l. (from roots) and solanum nigrum l. (from fruits), were evaluated for their cytotoxic effect on different cel...

background: several herbal remedies are used in traditional medicine for treatment of liver disorders, but their efficacy, safety, and dosage have not been investigated so far. objective: the present study was aimed to evaluate the liver protective effects of medicinal herbs extracts such as cynara scolymus leave (artichok), cichorium intybus roots (chichory), taraxacum officinale root (dandeli...

Alimurgic species are edible wild plants growing spontaneously as invasive weeds in natural grassland and farmed fields. Growing interest in biodiversity conservation projects suggests deeper study of the multifunctional roles they can play in metal uptake for phytoremediation and their food safety when cultivated in polluted land. In this study, the responses of the tap-rooted perennial specie...

More than one hundred species of Eriophyoidea have been recorded hitherto from Turkey. Within the last decade, a large plant survey was carried out in order to investigate the eriophyoid fauna present in Turkey, with particular emphasis on species affecting weeds and ornamental plants. In addition, the Turkish literature has been examined for previous records of eriophyoid mites. New species, P...

Chicory (Cichorium intybus L.), which is known to have a variety of terpene-hydroxylating activities, was screened for a P450 mono-oxygenase to convert (+)-valencene to (+)-nootkatone. A novel P450 cDNA was identified in a chicory root EST library. Co-expression of the enzyme with a valencene synthase in yeast, led to formation of trans-nootkatol, cis-nootkatol and (+)-nootkatone. The novel enz...

In young chicory plantlets [Cichorium intybus L. Witloof cv. Flash), nitrate assimilation takes place mainly in the roots. Nitrate reductase activity (NRA) was measured in roots deprived of shoot control by excision and transferred into a sucrose-containing medium. Such a treatment resulted in a drop of about 60% of NRA within 3 h. The level of NR protein decreased after 12 h and the level of N...

A "novel" protocol is presented for easy and reliable estimation of soluble hydroxycinnamate levels in Cichorium intybus L. leaf tissue in large-scale experiments. Samples were standardized by punching 6 discs per leaf, and hydroxycinnamates were extracted by submerging the discs in 80% ethanol with 5% acetic acid for at least 48 h in the darkness at 4°C. Residual dry mass of the discs was used...

Pectins are major components of the primary plant cell wall. They can be both methylesterified and acetylesterified and de-esterification occurs by specific esterases. Proteins extracted by NaCl treatment from root cell walls of two chicory varieties (Cichorium intybus L. cv. Nausica and Arancha) sampled in an experimental field every 2 weeks between July 2002 and January 2003 were analysed by ...