Most studies on plant defenses against insect herbivores investigate direct and indirect plant defenses independently. However, these defenses are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Plant metabolites can be transmitted through the food chain and can also affect the herbivore’s natural enemies. A conflict may arise when a natural enemy is attracted to a plant that is suboptimal in terms of its ...

Introduction: Mentha piperita L, a lesser-known and partly proved drug in homoeopathy, is used extensively as herbal medicine.

Weed control tries to suppress competitors for a crop and often relies on differential intoxication, making use of differences in uptake, development, or metabolism. We explored the possibility using natural signals shift competition favour crop. Using competitive horsemint (Mentha longifolia) as paradigm, we showed that essential oils from certain mint species seedling development different ta...

Agaricus arvensis, a newly isolated basidiomycetous fungus, was found to secrete efficient cellulases. The strain produced the highest endoglucanase (EG), cellobiohydrolase (CBH) and beta-glucosidase (BGL) activities of 0.3, 3.2 and 8U/mg-protein, respectively, with rice straw as the carbon source. Saccharification of the woody biomass with A. arvensis cellulase as the enzyme source released a ...

Changes in essential oil composition of peppermint (Mentha x piperita L.) affected by yeast extract and salicylic acid foliar application

Horses in a few, localized northern Colorado pastures exhibited weight loss and colic. At post mortem, intestinal fibrosis and vascular sclerosis of the small intestine was identified. The pastures where the affected horses grazed were overrun by field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis). Bindweed from the pasture was found to contain the tropane alkaloids tropine, pseudotropine, and tropinone and ...

A new species of eriophyoid mite, Aculus castriferrei n. sp., associated with Agrimonia eupatoria (Rosaceae) is described and illustrated from Hungary. Morphological differences distinguishing this vagrant species from other rosaceous inhabiting congeners are discussed. Aceria malherbae Nuzzaci is a new record for the eriophyoid fauna of Hungary after it was found causing severe damage symptoms...

* Author for correspondence and reprint requests Z. Naturforsch. 64c, 809-812 (2009); received May 7/July 23, 2009 Menthalactone, a new long-chain alkene with a bicyclic lactone moiety, was isolated as an analgesic constituent from the leaves of Mentha cordifolia Opiz. At a dosage of 100 mg/ kg mouse, it decreased the number of squirms induced by acetic acid by 67.3%. Statistical analysis using...