A real-time PCR assay conjugated with the fluorescent SYBR Green I dye has been developed for rapid, sensitive and quantitative detection of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma prunorum’ in its natural hosts, in stone fruits such as apricot plants and in the insect vector Cacopsylla pruni. The selected primers amplified specifically a fragment 153 bp long from the rplV (rpl22) gene of ‘Ca. P. prunorum’ and...

Stone martens (Martes foina) are documented as generalist throughout their distributional range whose diet composition is affected by food availability. We tested if this occurs and what feeding strategies it follows in a typical Mediterranean ecosystem in Central Greece by analysing contents from 106 stomachs, seasonally collected from three different habitats during 2003-2006. Seasonal variat...

The aim of present study was to carry out pharmacognostic and physicochemical evaluation of fruits of Gmelina arborea. Fresh fruits and dried powder of the fruits were studied by morphology, microscopy, qualitative chemical test and florescence analysis of powdered drug. Other physicochemical parameters were also performed as per WHO guide lines. The detailed microscopy revealed the presence of...

post-harvest losses particularly due to fungal invasions, is a major factor in limiting the shelf life of many fruits and vegetables. in order to study the effects of essential oils of thyme (thymus kotschyanus), basil (ocimum basilicum) and rosemary (rosmarinus officinalis) on control of grey mold (botrytis cinerea) disease in pear, a series of in vitro and in vivo (during cold storage of pear...

OBJECTIVE Grape virus diseases are a serious problem in Iran. Leaves and fruits of grape have been used for different purposes like cooking in Iran. The present investigation was carried out to study on the cytotoxic-activities of extracts of fruits and leaves of Vitis vinifera from both virus-free and virus-infected grape cultivars against breast cancer cell line (MDAMB- 231) and human embryon...